one of my absolute favorites!

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Even so-called "B" movies can be good - if they have a good plot, screenplay, sets and settings, and cast. Unfortunately, "The Dawn Express" is lacking in all of these. As much as one might want to have an interesting espionage thriller, this film just screams "amateur." The script is terrible, the plot and acting resemble the melodrama of silent films. Most propaganda films are much better than this. The plot idea is a good one, but the story just didn't get a very good screenplay. Either that or the direction was terrible. More than likely, it was a combination of the two. Even the most die-hard war movie collectors will want to forget this poor film.

Michael Whalen (Robert Norton), Anne Nagel (Nancy Fielding), William Bakewell (Tom Fielding), Constance Worth (Linda Pavlo), Hans Von Twardowski (Captain Gremmler), Jack Mulhall (Curtis), Kenneth Harlan (Brown), Crane Whitley (Ed), Frank Mayo (the FBI agent who shadows Tom), George Pembroke (Professor Schmidt), Robert Frazer (John Oliver), Hans Von Morhart (Heinrich), Michael Vallin (Argus), Montague Shaw (Prescott), William Costello (Otto), William Yetter (Wolf), George Morrell, Milburn Morante (waiters), Jack Gardner (spy with paper), Ted Adams (Sullivan, the night guard).Director: ALBERT HERMAN. Original screenplay: Arthur St Claire. Photography: Eddie Linden. Film editor: Leete R. Brown. Art director: James Altwies. Music director: Lee Zahler. Assistant director: Seymour Roth. Sound recording: Corson Jowett. Associate producer: Arthur Alexander. Producers: Max Alexander, George M. Merrick. Executive producer: George R. Batcheller. Copyright 20 February 1942 by Producers Releasing Corporation. The movie did open in New York in 1942, but the actual date was not recorded. U.S. release: 27 March 1942. No theatrical release in Australia. 66 minutes.Alternative title: NAZI SPY RING.SYNOPSIS: Nazi agents will stop at nothing to gain the secret of a chemical formula which will enhance the power of gasoline.COMMENT: Here's the lovely Constance Worth from "Criminals Within", again at her villainous best. This time she has another sympathetic director in Albert Herman who, in collaboration with photographer Eddie Linden, has contrived lots of spooky close-ups of all the heavies (even the minor ones) which are somewhat arbitrarily edited into the action. Nonetheless, it's all moderately exciting by Poverty Row standards, even if the rather routine story does come to a foregone conclusion which will only surprise those callous but stupid Nazi spies.

It's a PRC film so start with low expectations, but The Dawn Express will not even meet those. This is a horribly dated early World War II era flag waver when we were told to be on the alert for Nazi spies everywhere.Michael Whalen and William Bakewell are a pair of scientists working in a chemical laboratory on a formula to get a little more mileage out of the gasoline in your tank's tank. Something no doubt that General Patton will find invaluable, not to mention what it will do for the post war civilian drivers. The Nazis want it too and they're even sending one of their top scientists, flying him secretly to America to test it for himself. It's Bakewell they get to first putting an alluring Constance Worth in his path. Bakewell does fancy himself a player. Then it's up to Whalen to keep the formula out of Nazi hands and rescue Bakewell if he can do both. In fact he's engaged to Bakewell's sister Anne Nagel.There are about a dozen holes in this story and it looks like it was shot with an old Bell&Howell home movie camera. I just hope our post war drivers got the benefit of this research.

When "The Dawn Express" began, I assumed that It would be a pretty bad film. After all, it was made by PRC and it had a cast filled with complete unknowns. And, it turned out I was pretty much right about this one. The film is a wartime propaganda movie—meant to capitalize on the war as well as engender support at home for the war effort. Because of this, it is unabashedly patriotic and obvious. Subtle it isn't. Quickly written and often illogical it is.The film begins with a couple workers from a chemical plant being kidnapped by Nazi spies. Then, after pumping them for information about a top secret formula, the two are murdered and their bodies dumped. Not surprisingly, US agents took notice of this—and it's odd the Nazis didn't think of this. The next guy they pump for information is different. Instead of kidnapping him, they know he's a bit of a playboy—so they send a pretty Nazi agent his way. Soon, her superiors demand he give them the formula but he refuses. They threaten to kill his family and he asks for time. Now you'd think they'd kill him or torture him….but they let him go! And, oddly, this dodo doesn't tell anyone!! What's going to happen next and how will Professor Schmidt figure into all this nonsense, find out for yourself.Despite having many more plot holes than I mentioned above, the film has a certain silly likability. I often find these super-low budget films great fun if you don't take them seriously and they are exciting…if also quite dumb. Exciting and dumb…yep, that pretty much sums "The Dawn Express"!