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| Source: Wikipedia |
At last, film noir starring the femme fatale. The stone-hearted private dick (this time a G-man snoop) takes a backseat, mostly to create romantic tension for our lovely drunken floozy.
The Americanized daughter of a Nazi officer, she receives a special job:
- Take a Brazilian vacation on Uncle Sam’s dime.
- Hook up with some Nazi expatriates (ahem: German businessmen), maybe seduce one or two, stoke up an old flame.
- Finally, report every seemingly inconsequential detail to the fedora-toting CIA spooks who just happened to follow her down.
On what motivation? To demonstrate her patriotism (veiled threat intentional). Also, to show her spontaneous love/infatuation for aforementioned G-man snoop, who fortunately happens to be devilishly handsome. Her new German fiance is notably less so.
When the twitterpated dummkopf wakes from his honeymoon daze, he makes a shocking revelation ripped straight out of Third Reich men’s magazines: "Oh sheiße, I married an American spy!"
When the twitterpated dummkopf wakes from his honeymoon daze, he makes a shocking revelation ripped straight out of Third Reich men’s magazines: "Oh sheiße, I married an American spy!"
As if the gal’s recurrent interactions with the suspicious-as-hell American Adonis weren't evidence enough. Her unlucky hubby should thank Hitler’s ghost he lives with his canny old mother, despite his own obscene wealth and scary Nazi refugee buddies who drop in for schnapps.
Alfred Hitchcock captures the war aftermath the best way he knows how: a genre movie with all the trappings. Snippy speeches about love; suspense from repeated near-discoveries; posh dinner parties; and so, so much infidelity. There are hints at the potential of Nazi nukes, foreshadowing the Cold War’s baby steps and the subsequent arms race. But, like the Cold War, after ages and ages of mounting tension, the movie just…ends.
Like so.
Alfred Hitchcock captures the war aftermath the best way he knows how: a genre movie with all the trappings. Snippy speeches about love; suspense from repeated near-discoveries; posh dinner parties; and so, so much infidelity. There are hints at the potential of Nazi nukes, foreshadowing the Cold War’s baby steps and the subsequent arms race. But, like the Cold War, after ages and ages of mounting tension, the movie just…ends.
Like so.
101 minutes.
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