The only reason I wanted to see this World War Two propaganda film was the presence of Ward Bond in a leading role which he handled very well & was completely convincing & believable. He had an enormous screen presence & personality & he could've easily became a leading actor if he really wanted to but he was content in small & distinguished supporting roles. He was quite versatile & is often associated with John Wayne in the John Ford directed films. Ward Bond was literally in just about every film to name a few like "It Happened One Night" (1934) he was an extra in "G-Men" (1935) "Night Key" with Boris Karloff (1937), "Dead End" (1937), "Prison Break" with Barton Maclane (1938), "Gone With The Wind" (1939) he was an extra in "Son Of Frankenstein" (1939), "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946), "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" with James Cagney (1950) etc. He was in hundred's of movies.
He often played cops & gangsters & I thought he did a good job in the leading role of the patriotic gangster. The cast is solid with established actors like Paul Fix & Warren Hymer who often played stupid gangsters. Sure the plot is far fetched but it was 1942 & WW2 was a very popular war inspiring national patriotism. The film was obviously a wartime moral booster while at the same time trying to sustain & save a dying genre: the gangster film & in 1942 what better way to sell a gangster movie than to turn the gangsters into patriotic American hero's on an improbable mission to knock off Adolf Hitler. It may be a little campy today but in it's day this movie was probably taken seriously by 1942 audiences. Think about it, the film was obviously intended to be serious & it's not a bad watch & I would watch it again & it's by far superior to the Ed Wood films.
There is really no comparison & there is a lot worse movies out there than this. Don't forget Ed Wood was voted the worst director of all time, an honor & title he fittingly deserves. It doesn't get any worse than Ed Wood not even an Elvis Presley movie.
He often played cops & gangsters & I thought he did a good job in the leading role of the patriotic gangster. The cast is solid with established actors like Paul Fix & Warren Hymer who often played stupid gangsters. Sure the plot is far fetched but it was 1942 & WW2 was a very popular war inspiring national patriotism. The film was obviously a wartime moral booster while at the same time trying to sustain & save a dying genre: the gangster film & in 1942 what better way to sell a gangster movie than to turn the gangsters into patriotic American hero's on an improbable mission to knock off Adolf Hitler. It may be a little campy today but in it's day this movie was probably taken seriously by 1942 audiences. Think about it, the film was obviously intended to be serious & it's not a bad watch & I would watch it again & it's by far superior to the Ed Wood films.
There is really no comparison & there is a lot worse movies out there than this. Don't forget Ed Wood was voted the worst director of all time, an honor & title he fittingly deserves. It doesn't get any worse than Ed Wood not even an Elvis Presley movie.