It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

. . . for American Hearts & Minds on the Big Screen in 1939. Since all the Hollywood money--except Warner's--was backing the Nazis, that racist, boring snooze-fest bladder-buster dubbed GONE WITH THE WIND stole CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY's well-deserved Best Picture Oscar. In fact, GWTW's story line dove-tailed perfectly with Nazi Disinformation Minister Joseph Goebbels' racially-divisive propaganda leaflets that CONFESSIONS documents were being handed out at every American school yard, placed on theater seats before each GWTW showing, as well as being dropped by the bushel from airplanes and high-rise windows. In 1939, one of the two major U.S. political parties was in cahoots with Hitler. That is why the millions of German Fifth Columnists and Hitler Youth Scouts terrorizing America were NEVER interned, despite mountains of evidence summarized in CONFESSIONS. Instead, the race-based slavery precepts championed by GWTW created a climate in which thousands of loyal Japanese-Americans were declared as being "Non-human," as they were permanently deprived of all their property and peace of mind despite there not being a shred of evidence against a single one of them! CONFESSIONS shows us how Hitler used Fifth Column traitors and saboteurs to plunder Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and France. Britain had to stamp out thousands of their own Gestapo pawns around the time that CONFESSIONS was released. But in America, all but four of these Heil-Hitlering Brown Shirts remained free before, during, and after WWII--free to lord it over the rest of us loyal, Freedom-loving citizens with their huge heaps of money down to the present day. Are YOUR Congressional reps second generation Sig Heilers?

I'd never heard of this film but when I saw it in the cable lineup for Turner Classics this morning I had to be there, especially with Edgar G. Robinson heading the cast. Interestingly, Robinson doesn't even appear until about half way into the picture as an FBI agent hot on the trail of a German-American turned Nazi spy. I have to admit, there were times the story got pretty chilling for me the way it portrayed Nazi infiltration into American daily life look so easy to do. The blind obedience to Adolph Hitler professed by Dr. Karl Kassel (Paul Lukas) in his speeches to local bund gatherings is somewhat hard to imagine today, but then again, I've seen era footage of a Hitler rally in Madison Square Garden, so I have to believe this wouldn't have been impossible.What I thought was pretty cool was the way Agent Renard (Robinson) got Kurt Schneider (Francis Lederer) to crack, playing to his vanity and sense of self importance. No doubt the job was made easier by Schneider's inability to make his spy activities pay off in a big way with his German contact Schlager (George Sanders). It's also noteworthy to mention how Germans in the film reacted in horror to the mere mention of the word 'Gestapo'; every time it was uttered it brought on a near panic attack.I'm really curious how this film was received back when first released. Gallup polls taken in 1936 showed that only one in twenty Americans were in favor of America getting involved in another war, but it took only two more years of Hitler's aggression to convince Americans that strengthening our Armed Forces for a conflict would be in our best interest. In perhaps the best line of dialog that would preview America's eventual entry into World War II, Attorney Kellogg (Henry O'Neill) states his considered view to Agent Renard that "When our basic liberties are threatened, we wake up."

but if you watch this expecting Edward G. Robinson to be front and center during most of the film you will be disappointed. Robinson doesn't show up until two-thirds of the way into the movie, and even then he is not the center of attention. He is just the biggest star in this film as an F.B.I. agent trying to break up a Nazi spy ring in America.Some people try to compare this film with the propaganda films of the HUAC era of the early 1950's, but there is one big difference - many of the incidents mentioned here are based on actual cases, and the Nazis did actually declare war on the U.S. In fact, American indifference to the growing Nazi menace in the late 1930's might have been the cause for the overreaction and Communist witch hunts of the early 1950's. Ironically, Edward G. Robinson himself was an object of those witch hunts.With few well known stars, this film manages to spin an interesting and rather complex tale of Nazis in 1930's America, their strategy, and their individual weaknesses. In the case of Paul Lukas' Dr. Kassel, part of his problem is he wants to impress a young lady with whom he is involved. Being a Nazi leader makes him important in her eyes. In the case of Francis Lederer's Kurt Schneider, he thinks he is too important and too smart to be bogged down in the every day routine of making a living, although it is ironic that accumulating capital seems to be his central goal.It's true that this film goes over the top at times, but it is still a fine example of film-making in that golden year of Hollywood, 1939. Highly recommended.

Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) *** (out of 4) Better than expected propaganda film from Warner is probably more historically interesting than entertaining but there's still enough good stuff here to make it stand up well in today's times. The film centers on an FBI agent (Edward G. Robinson) who is trying to track down and break a Nazi ring working inside the United States. Watching this film today the subject matter is rather heavily handled and preachy. I'd go even further to say that the director and screenwriter are constantly beating their subjected over the head of the viewer but one has to remember that the Nazi movements in America were pretty much kept quiet back in the day and this film bravely threw them under the bus a few times. One has to applaud the film for trying what it did in 1939 and I'm sure the movie opened the eyes of many people (even though I've heard it wasn't a hit for the studio). The story told here is a pretty good one that will certainly grab your attention and keep you going throughout the film. The documentary-style telling doesn't work overly well but that doesn't matter too much. Robinson turns in a good, quiet performance as the main FBI guy. He doesn't shout or get too worked up, which is something I haven't seen from him in his earlier films. I really enjoyed how Robinson played the character and it really paid off in the end. Francis Lederer, George Sanders, Paul Lukas, Henry O'Neill and Joe Sawyer add nice supporting performances.