bkoganbing
The most surprising thing about Betrayal From The East is that Drew Pearson put his time to it. In post war America Pearson was one of the earliest and most consistent critics of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the brand of right wing conspiracies he was peddling. It shocked me that he would lend his name to this kind of propaganda claptrap.Lend it he did to this film which has the Japanese contacting former army guy Lee Tracy now a carnival barker to see if he could get the plans for the Panama Canal defense. Presumably Tracy's efforts in foiling the Japanese designs on the canal are the reason it was not a casualty of war.I'm still trying to figure out why American agent Nancy Kelly who Tracy sees killed in San Francisco winds up in the Canal Zone on another assignment on the same case where Tracy is now. What were the writers thinking with? The film is a cheap imitation of one of Humphrey Bogart's and John Huston's lesser films Across The Pacific. This makes that one look like Gone With The Wind.
unkadunk0801
the first time i saw this movie was when I was about 8 years old and even after all these years i still remembered the movie even though I couldn't at times remember who the stars were and it wasn't until I was looking through an old movie book that had all of the 1940s movies in it did I see a brief review and several pictures of it And found out who the stars were.And quite recently at a movie memorabilia show in NYC I asked about the movie and was able to find out that it was on DVD.But the man didn't have a copy of it but told me would bring it to the next show.And he did and of course I purchased it and watching it again made me recall how good it was.The stars were Lee Tracy,Nancy Kelly,Regis Toomey and my favorite Japanese villain of all time Richard Loo ,If you see it anywhere my advice is pick it-up regardless of the cost.
Chris Gaskin
I taped Betrayal From the East when BBC2 screened during the early hours at the beginning of this year (2006). They screened several obscure movies at this time.Japan has sent several spies to California to get hold of secrets of the Panama Canal. Two spies fall in love, but the woman is killed by the Japanese. The other spy bites the dust during the shoot out at the end.The cast includes Lee Tracy, Nancy Kelly (Tarzan's Desert Mystery, The Woman Who Came Back) and Richard Loo.This is quite an enjoyable little movie.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.
neroville
This is without a doubt the worst Lee Tracy movie I have ever seen, and that is saying a lot because his movies tend to be of a consistently high quality. This movie verges on being MST3K fodder, and if you're familiar with that show, you can easily imagine Crow, Tom Servo, and Joel (or Mike) wisecracking their way through this dopey, racist, tedious, half-baked war-era nonsense. Okay, I know the historical context in which it was made, it was well-meaning propaganda from 1945; but no matter how many times I told myself this during the course of the movie, it didn't improve it any, or make it any more entertaining.
The plot is typical double-agent fluff, about some seemingly amoral carnival barker, who, when paid a pile by the perfidious Japanese to spy against the good ol' U.S. of A., shows himself to be a True Blue Patriot and ends up giving his all for the cause. There's badly staged fight scenes, corny torture scenes, plenty of inscrutable villains staring meaningfully at each other, and a couple of love scenes which were blatant- and badly done- ripoffs of "Casablanca." Most annoying is the narration by journalist Drew Pearson at the beginning and end of the film. Evidently the director had such a low opinion of his audience's IQ, he felt the need to need to hammer in his message more with stentorian sermonizing acting as bookends. It wasn't enough to show us the Japanese were our enemies; did they have to tell us too? Was the director so afraid that we would just not get it otherwise?Lee Tracy plays the carnival barker in question (shades of his earlier, and much better film, the "Half Naked Truth"). What is remarkable is how grim and stoic he appears throughout the entire film; much different from his customary ebullience, rapid-fire wisecracking and handwaving. His boredom and weary indifference virtually radiate from every frame of this misbegotten motion picture, as if he knew how this whole enterprise was imminently undeserving of his talents. He keeps repeating, "I'm just doin' this for the dough," as if it were his own personal mantra, and it leaves one to think that that was his main reason behind this picture as well. His attentions to Nancy Kelly, his alleged love interest, are lacking in any conviction whatsoever, and for the most part he seems more excited by the thought of his paycheck. As for Nancy Kelly, she provides a good argument against child stardom; although 24 at the time this film was made, this former child star appears a good 10 to 15 years older, and her strained posture and exaggerated, flutey voice don't help her. She does however provide one of the most amusing moments of the film, when (**SPOILER**) the bad guys steam her to death in a sauna.Good propaganda gets its point by showing, not telling; and by providing its audience with a fun, compelling and interesting story. "Betrayal from the East" does neither. Recommended only for students of the period or die-hard Lee Tracy fans.
