The They Made Her A Spy

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The They Made Her A Spy
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When her brother is killed in the mysterious explosion of a new field-gun for the U. S. Army, Irene Eaton goes to Washington D. C. to call upon Colonel Shaw, head of the Army Military Intellegence. The gun explosion was just one of many acts of sabotage recently pulled off by a foreign sabotage gang. Shw and his aides are the subject of increasing criticism from Congressmen and politicians such as Everett Brock because they haven't captured the gang members and leaders. Shaw appoints Irene to root them out and sends her off to the Dome Cafe which is the headquarters of the gang.
When her brother is killed by sabotage, Irene Eaton (Sally Eilers) joins the secret service and goes undercover to unroot the culprits.
A decent script by, among other people, Michael Kanin, gets turned into an RKO B movie. Although the cast is nominally pretty good -- including Sally Eilers and Alan &#39;Rocky&#39; Lane as the leads, old pro Teddy von Eltz as the good spymaster and Fritz Leiber Sr. as the rather cadaverous and evil Dr. Krull -- a name borrowed, if I recall correctly, for a bunch of subterranean baddies in the Silver Age Fantastic Four -- the whole thing is rather poorly performed. Saly Eilers is pretty stiff and declamatory and Alan Lane is little better in his scenes with her. Leiber is just fine; the only question in my mind is why he wasn&#39;t picked up as soon as he showed his face and given the third degree.<br/><br/>Director Jack Hively is probably at fault for what I see as the film&#39;s shortcomings. This was his last year as a director, all in RKO Bs, although he went on to be the AD on several excellent movies of the late 1940s.
&quot;They Made Her a Spy&quot; is from that landmark year 1939 -- the year of so many great films. This isn&#39;t one of them. It&#39;s a B movie from RKO.<br/><br/>Sally Eilers stars as a young woman whose brother is a victim of sabotage, which has been rampant. She volunteers to do undercover work to find out who is feeding plans and secrets to the enemy. Now, I saw &quot;Carve My Name With Pride,&quot; a real-life story, and I know what the government puts you through in order for someone to become a spy. With this woman, she becomes a spy immediately without so much as a background check.<br/><br/>Pretending to be involved with the other side, she is directed to one of the leaders, a Herr Krull, starts delivering results, and earns his trust. That takes up about ten minutes of screen time. But some people are still suspicious.<br/><br/>Fritz Lieber plays Dr. Krull. I&#39;m assuming this is the noted Shakespearian stage actor Fritz Lieber Sr., father of the science fiction writer Fritz Lieber Jr.<br/><br/>There isn&#39;t much of a plot here; it seems like Irene no sooner becomes a spy that things come to a boil, the movie is that short. It&#39;s not very impressive. Some familiar faces among the supporting players -- Charles Halton, Addison Richards, a few others.<br/><br/>Probably pounded out in five days.

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