Boobirt
Stylish but barely mediocre overall
Spidersecu
Don't Believe the Hype
ChanFamous
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
mark.waltz
Secret agent Pat O'Brien poses as a dock worker at a navy ship building factory as a method of tracking down a band of saboteurs, pretty much right under his nose in this World War II bit of propaganda. On the way, he finds a "wife" (Carole Landis) to give him cover and keep fifth columnists from finding out that he was once a foreign correspondent. Landis is his wife in cover only, but ex girlfriend Ruth Warrick suspects that the marriage is a sham. As the clock ticks down, accidents happen on the ship building site, particularly a nasty one to Obrien's estranged brother (Chester Morris) who had great reluctance in hiring O'Brien in the first place.Filled with action and plenty of thrills in a relatively short running time, this is typical war propaganda with one dimensional villains and tough talking but completely patriotic factory workers. Barton Maclane is particularly memorable as the aging bully who goes out of his way to fight with O'Brien but ends up a loyal drinking buddy after their dukes are put up. Fans of "All My Children" will be delighted to see Phoebe Tyler Wallingford in a nice role. There are a few surprising twists in this, but they don't necessarily involve the war intrigue, but the equally important romantic subplot.
JohnHowardReid
Roy Chanslor's screenplay of the John and Ward Hawkins story, "The Saboteurs", is, as we might expect, war-time propaganda concerned with the enemy's attempts to sabotage Californian shipyards. It's now somewhat dated. Worse still, the script is inclined to be too talkative, even though producer Phil Ryan has tried to offset this problem by engaging a first-class cast, including always reliable Pat O'Brien, plus two lovelies in the form of Carole Landis and Ruth Warrick, to do most of the talking. Alas, generally speaking, both Eddie Sutherland's direction and Franz Planer's cinematography are undistinguished. But fortunately, the action scenes have a fair amount of credibility, and there is an adequate climax.
MartinHafer
This film is a slight departure for its star, Pat O'Brien, because in this film he is an undercover agent trying to expose saboteurs at a ship-building plant. He gets a job doing "grunt work" but really is outside his element--since he knows nothing about ships or machinery. His brother, Chester Morris, has no idea why Pat wants this job, but reluctantly hires him. It's obvious there is some bad blood between them, though exactly what it is doesn't ever get explained. However, Morris and the rest of the guys at the plant give him a pretty hard time until he eventually proves himself. To make the ruse more believable, Pat is set up with an instant family--a pretend wife and two cute little pretend kids who are actually war orphans. Over time, Pat can't help but love the pretend family--and looking at them, I could certainly see why.At the plant, almost no one knows O'Brien is an agent. His contact there is Wallace Ford--who has already started to infiltrate the gang of Nazis planning on sabotaging something--exactly what and when are unknown. How this all comes together in the end is very exciting and kept my attention. In fact, the movie was so well-written and tense that it managed to somehow rise above the genre and is STILL an excellent drama...and I LOVED the ending even though it was a tad "schmaltzy".
groening-2
"Secret Command" wastes what must have been a fairly large budget and high-power cast on a predictable story with little suspense or drama.Pat O'Brien is miscast in the leading man role, failing to convey the quiet masculine strength and sexuality called for here.The home-life scenes, with the European orphans, designed to tug at our heart strings, don't quite work either, and detract from the drama of the hunt for Nazis in the shipyard. And our hero is never really put in any danger.I have a fondness for the World War II propaganda flicks, but even I didn't warm to this one. What I generally like about the propaganda films is that they have some edge to them, since they are dealing with life and death stuff. "Secret Command" seems to go light on these elements.A posted comment questioned "Secret Command" winning a special effects Oscar, and I found myself wondering about that as well. I concluded that the underwater shots, and the (apparent) location shots on the crane were considered "special" effects in the 1940s. (Today we assume special effects relates to only fabricated shots or images.)
