A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Running at just an hour, the 1939 Monogram film "Navy Secrets" barely ranks any interest as its plot gets off the ground. Craig Reynolds is a sailor in love with Fay Wray who is arrested for being late returning to his ship, and sends pal Grant Withers off to meet her so they can turn in some supposed rare stamps for a large monetary sum. Obviously, it is more than stamps he is selling, and it becomes a wild goose chase between obvious German bad guys (never identified by race) and obvious government agents. Wray and Withers end up stranded in a park with Wray's purse filled with nickles after she wins at an illegal slot machine and an annoying kid riding around him on a bike. Of course, for the few people who have seen this movie, that is the scene they all remember, but the poor kid doesn't seem to be credited anywhere that I can find. Wray and Withers seem out of sorts too because she's supposedly involved with his pal Reynolds (who basically disappears less than 10 minutes into the film) and all of a sudden is flirting with Withers whom she makes several escape attempts from while they are on the run from the bad guys. A few moments of comedy don't make up for the fact that the plot is absurdly put together and never really intriguing.

Navy Secrets is an illustration of how low certain players can fall in terms of box office draw. At one time at the beginning of sound both Grant Withers and Fay Wray were featured in A films. Of course everyone knows that Fay Wray reached the heights in King Kong's gigantic paw in 1933. Now six years later she and Grant are starring in a C picture film for Monogram as a pair of naval intelligence agents trying to break up a spy ring.According to this story the Navy in its infinite wisdom decides not to tell each other that the person they are working with is also an agent. The bad guys are after some new Naval sounding device and they are certainly Teutonic enough in keeping with the times. The spy ring operates out of Dewey Robinson's waterfront café.Years ago Huntz Hall told a story that at Monogram when Sam Katzman needed to get a film under budget he just randomly ripped out a few pages from the script and the director just shot what was left. I got that impression watching Naval Secrets, I had to make many connections in my mind to follow the story and in some cases just gave up trying.There is one funny scene where Withers and Wray keep trying to get rid of this annoying kid who is riding his bicycle and won't give them any privacy. It looked like it was grafted in from another film. I think I would like to have seen that film instead.

OK, this is not a great movie, but the real problem is that the plot description on IMDb and the back of the DVD box gives away the only real mystery in the film. Without reading the plot description about "two naval officers", there really could be some mystery in this mediocre spy film from Monogram, and some people would actually be surprised at the ending.I got this movie only because I'm on a somewhat unhealthy quest to see everything that has Fay Wray in it, and she looks great here, although she basically wears the same clothes throughout the entire film, as it takes place over the course of one night. The sets are pretty cheap looking, the direction is pretty lame, and the pace is a bit choppy. However, Fay and Grant Withers do a good job with what they have to work with, and the movie is almost saved entirely by a couple of scenes. One involving a kid on a bicycle interrupting a quiet moment in the park, and the other involving Fay in a phone booth trying to make a call with bad guys roaming around. The second scene is ruined at the end by a complete lack of timing on the part of the editor or director, or maybe they just couldn't afford another take.The DVD I bought is from Reel Enterprises and the picture was pretty bad and the sound uneven, but hey, thanks to them for actually making this one available. Any other obscure Fay Wray films out there? I'm on a mission, you know....

Poor little second feature has Grant Withers and Fay Wray wandering around the city trying to track down who wants an envelope carrying navy secrets -- only they think it's collectible stamps. Withers and Wray try to carry this one along on their charm, but they aren't up to it, although there is one good scene in a park and a small, annoying boy on a bicycle.