Jules Dassin already shows great flair in his first full-length feature film. From the opening montage, you know you're in the hands of a director who has a strong visual and dramatic sense.
Conrad Veidt does double duty as two contrasting characters, and pulls it off with aplomb. The supporting cast is also strong.
However, NAZI AGENT suffers from a hackneyed and completely implausible script. It relies heavily on coincidence, and on what Roger Ebert would call an "idiot plot." (That's a plot that would unravel early on if even one character would behave logically...in this case, Otto Becker.) The first 20 minutes or so is promising. Even later in the movie there are some nice ideas and plenty of tension. But the overall idiocy of the central concept spoils the effect.
Do you believe that a humble old stamp dealer has enough makeup in his office to turn himself into a different character on the spur of the moment, while thugs wait at the bottom of the stairs? Do you believe that anyone would blindly assume the character of a man without having the faintest clue about his job, his colleagues, or who and what he might be expected to know and do? Or that a meek-mannered little man can successfully pose as a cold-blooded Nazi? If you can believe all this, you'll probably give NAZI AGENT a ten.
Conrad Veidt does double duty as two contrasting characters, and pulls it off with aplomb. The supporting cast is also strong.
However, NAZI AGENT suffers from a hackneyed and completely implausible script. It relies heavily on coincidence, and on what Roger Ebert would call an "idiot plot." (That's a plot that would unravel early on if even one character would behave logically...in this case, Otto Becker.) The first 20 minutes or so is promising. Even later in the movie there are some nice ideas and plenty of tension. But the overall idiocy of the central concept spoils the effect.
Do you believe that a humble old stamp dealer has enough makeup in his office to turn himself into a different character on the spur of the moment, while thugs wait at the bottom of the stairs? Do you believe that anyone would blindly assume the character of a man without having the faintest clue about his job, his colleagues, or who and what he might be expected to know and do? Or that a meek-mannered little man can successfully pose as a cold-blooded Nazi? If you can believe all this, you'll probably give NAZI AGENT a ten.