Thursday, June 21, 2018

Movie review - "Submarine Alert" (1943) **

This WW2 Pine Thomas actioner is a little flat. The basic story sounds okay - the government arrange for a bunch of radio engineers to be fired in order to track them and see if they're recruited by enemy agents to transmit information. But when you think about it, that's a little mean and risky. Why not just get someone to go undercover.

Richard Arlen is the engineer - he thinks he got fired because he's Canadian! And he's tempted to work to save the life of a three year old girl he looks after. (Cute kids were popping up in Pine Thomas around this time).

Wendy Barrie is an FBI agent who pretends to meet him accidentally and falls in love with him which is okay complication and gives her something to do.

But it all feels a bit flabby.  I was bored. There's an annoying kid on a short wave radio, evil villains who feel like they should be played by Bela Lugosi.

I also felt cheated none of it took place on a submarine! The release for this was held up over a year and I'm not surprised.

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