Really Surprised!

People are voting emotionally.

Brilliant and touching

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I Was An American Spy is a remarkable film for two reasons. First it's one of the few non-westerns that director Lesley Selander did in his career. Secondly I'm surprised that this story did not rate A picture treatment with a bigger name actress other than Ann Dvorak. Dvorak was on the downward slope of her career at this point.That being said Dvorak gives a wonderful performance as the saloon entertainer Claire Phillips who married a GI stationed in the Phillipines the day after Pearl Harbor. When her husband Douglas Kennedy is killed in action she not only survives among the Japanese, but builds an extensive spy network and helps prisoners with food and gives valuable intelligence for sabotage working closely with American and Filipino guerrillas. Her main contact is Gene Evans heading up all the guerrilla activity in the islands, a role similar to what John Wayne does in Back To Bataan. Remarkably when she was caught she was kept several months in prison and was found nearly starved to death according to the Wikipedia article on Claire Phillips. They kept her alive in the hopes she'd crack and give the Japanese information. The woman had the right stuff for sure, she never did. I doubt though her rescue was in real life quite as action filled as it is in this film.Notice should also be taken of Richard Loo once again playing a Japanese soldier, in this case a colonel she makes a monkey out of. Loo had a career of playing cruel Japanese soldiers during World War II. Loo is given a bit more depth in this film than normally.A nice B film that rated A picture treatment of a real American hero.

This movie deserved more reviews than it received. I recall seeing it many years ago on the BIG SHOW, the 3PM movie shown on NBC in the 1960s. Mrs. Claire 'High Pockets' Phillips (Ann Dvorak) was left stranded by the American defeat in the Philippians. The Island fell to the Japanese. American civilians are being interned.Mrs Philippe manages to persuade Japanese authorities to leave her at liberty under flimsy Spanish identification papers. Behind their backs she is helping Filipino guerrillas and American soldiers in hiding. Can the rouse last until the Americans return? The acting by Ann Dvorak was superbly complimented by Richard Loo's performance as the enemy Colonel Masamato.I was surprised that this film did not receive a revival when the movie THE GREAT RAID came out in 2005.One commentator expressed doubt in Mrs Phillipe's exploits including following her husband's unit through the jungle. Americans of that generation unlike US people of later times had incalculable courage.

Does anyone have biographical information on Claire? Her birth name was Claire Snyder. Anything you have will help, such as birth date/place, parents, siblings, etc., as well as what happened to her after her book "I Was an American Spy" was published? In the 1950s, she was remarried, with the surname Clavier.I've found a speech by Senator Wayne Morse (he was an Oregon Republican who became an independent in 1952, then switched to the Democratic Party in 1955) about Claire Phillips Clavier (at a rough guess about 80% of the people with that surname are from Louisiana). I also found a studio synopsis of the movie. Based on that, Boone is John Peyton Boone (then a corporal).Claire's book "Manila Espionage" is out of print, and very difficult to find.

Based on a true story U.S. citizen Dvorak poses as a cabaret singer in Manila during WW2 to help combat a Japanese attack. Code name "High Pockets" she endures many dangers and severe punishment for the sake of her country in this tense spy story. Also impressive in the cast are Gene Evans, Douglas Kennedy and both Richard Loo and Philip Ahn performing their nasty Japanese soldier bits. However it's Dvorak who makes it all worth while. The veteran actress who excelled in such films as "Scarface" (1932), "Three on a Match" (1932), "G Men" (1935), "Our Very Own" (1950) etc. is outstanding as the American spy. Also featured in the film is the song "Because of You" which was a big hit for crooner Tony Bennett.