BETRAYAL FROM THE EAST
US, 1945, 84 minutes, Black-and-white.
Lee Tracy, Nancy Kelly, Richard Loo, Regis Toomey, Abner Biberman, Philip Ahn, Addison Richards, Bruce Edwards, Louis Jean Heydt, Jason Robards sr.
Directed by William Berke.
This is a film very much of its time, released in the year the World War II ended. However, it has a setting from the late 1930s to the early 1940s, the influence of the Japanese as well is the Germans in the United States, the fifth column work.
Lee Tracy, always gung ho, especially in the 1930s films where he was a newspaper reporter, finds a good role here, initially something has-being an managing a carnival but being recruited to work for the American government, undercover. He has been approached by Japanese agents and offered a great deal of money for information – but he is a patriot.
There is a range of Asian actors in the roles of the Japanese, especially Richard Loo as the secret brains behind the conspiracy and the ever-present Philip Ahn.
On the American side Louis Jean height and Jason Robards senior appear as newspapermen who become aware of the espionage and are murdered.
Tracy encounters a young woman who was also an agent undercover. They work together, are attracted, she is seen to be killed in a car accident but this has been staged and, when Tracy is assigned to Panama to get American military information, she appears as a Danish woman the escort of the principal German in Panama.
While there is some heroism, the characters, on paper, seem rather unlikely – there are a great dangers, Tracy risking his life, the girl being tortured and killed.
Interesting to look at it in American retrospective and attitudes towards the Japanese and the Germans during the war. And in the light of subsequent history.
1. A small film from 1945 it a significant theme and characters?
2. The fifth column in the United States, Japanese spies, business people? The repercussions on innocent Japanese and their internment? German spies and the infiltration? Working in the United States, the location for this film as Panama?
3. Small budget, small-budget cast, the American locations, the Panama locations? The musical score?
4. The opening in Japan, the reporters, the information, their being killed?
5. The American authorities, officials, wanting agents, infiltration?
6. The Tracy is Eddie Carter, his background, the military, his friends in the military and connections, the carnival, failure? The Japanese approaching him, the offer of money? Is going to the authorities? They’re commissioning him to go along with the plans? The meeting of the various Japanese personnel? Creating the full agent Jimmy Scott? The agent and the meeting, the discussions, the support? The encounters with Peggy, the attraction? Working with her, her infiltration? The sudden impact of the car accident and her death? Eddie upset?
7. It is signed to Panama, his mission, the agent supplying the plans, their being out of date? The contact with the Japanese, handing them over? The contact with the German agents? Peggy appearing again, and is surprised?
8. Time limitations, Eddy having to get back to the United States, his not yet getting his money, his playing that card?
9. The Germans, the head and his liking for Peggy, his assistant and her dislike, petty Peggy and her infiltration, listening, getting information, arrested, tortured?
10. Eddie, the taxi ride, the orders that he should be killed, being informed about the dangers, going to the airport, his getting away?
11. The rounding up of the spies? The significance of agents during World War II? Even unlikely ones?
