29 May Espionage Agent
Espionage Agent, WWII Movie starring Joel McCrea
(1939) As war is spreading across Europe and North Africa an American career diplomat falls in love with a beautiful woman who he later discovers has been involved in German espionage. This Warner Brothers film, like its earlier Confessions of a Nazi Spy, was an early anti-Nazi warning to America that our country was ill prepared to deal with the spies among us.
When the movie was released in September of 1939, President Roosevelt was concerned too. The following year he sent William J. Donovan to Great Britain to report back on Britain’s ability to stand up to Hitler. While there Donovan was given access by Churchill to study their intelligence organization.
In 1941 the President asked Donovan to head up America’s first peacetime intelligence organization, the Coordinator of Information. The following year, the COI became the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services.
In this movie, the writers spare no bones in delivering the message that enemy spies and saboteurs “are in league with some of those we will find buzzing around the agencies, legations, and consulates … If America, lacking the protective laws it needs, is drawn into another war it will be because of those human ostriches who keep their heads buried in the sand.”
The two main leads are played by Joel McCrea and Brenda Marshall. As always, McCrea is adorable and very charming. I wasn’t familiar with Brenda Marshall. This was the first film appearance for the beautiful brunette who married William Holden two years later. They had a 30 year marriage with many separations.
What I particularly enjoyed about Espionage Agent was its bold message about the Nazi threat against America at home. Although the spy caper that our two main characters manage to pull off may have seemed to be a farce at the time I’ll bet that two or three years later it would have been tame compared to what General Donovan’s group was experiencing on a daily basis.
Watch the original trailer on the Turner Classic Movies website.
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