CLOSE-UP

US, 1948, 75 minutes, Black-and-white.
Alan Baxter, Virginia Gilmore, Richard Killmar, Loring Smith, Philip Houston, Joey Faye, Russell Collins.
Directed by Jack Donahue..

This film has memories of World War II, Nazi criminals, footage of Nazi rallies. It relies on the information at the time that many Nazi officials sought refuge in other countries, were considered dead, but had gone underground.

The Close-up of the title is that of one such Nazi caught outside a bank in New York City. He has employed a gang of criminals to get the footage of this newsreel glimpse of him taken on the streets of New York, a series of models and clothing fashion.

The film was something of a mixture between comedy and thriller, Joey Faye as the assistant to the cinematographer, played by Alan Baxter, doing comic turns which may not seem all that funny nowadays. Alan Baxter is the man about town, photographer, charming with women, encountering a journalist who wants to interview him, Virginia Gilmore.

However, the film turns into something of a thriller when the cinematographer and his boss discover the footage. The hero is abducted by members of the gang posing as police, the journalist is terrorised at his apartment, his boss seems to have been murdered.

However, there are a number of twists. While the cinematographer is captured again and held by the criminals, it turns out that the journalist, with whom he is more than infatuated, is a partner in the gang. However, she wants to help him. And, the boss is still alive, the would-be assassin is dead. The police become involved, confrontations and shootouts – not quite a happy ending.

Interesting in so far as it represents aspects of Nazis in the postwar world.