Secret Command (1944)

Secret Command (1944)
June 14, 1944
THE SCREEN
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: June 14, 1944

Eire may be neutral in today's war, but, so far as Pat O'Brien is concerned, there's no question about the sentiments of the Irish; they'll fight Nazis at the drop of a cliché. And in "Secret Command," his first venture as a producer as well as an actor of films, Mr. O'Brien is proving it with both fists and a virtually all-Irish cast As a matter of fact, the enthusiasm of the Irish for a fight in this film is so great that when they aren't slugging Nazis they are often slamming around among themselves. And an honest Irish "pilebuck" in a shipyard is no less fair game than a Nazi saboteur. A fight is the essence of action. That's the sort of picture this new one at Loew's Criterion is.

In short, "Secret Command" finds Mr. O'Brien in another of his slashing muscular roles, this time on an FBI assignment to rout out Nazis in a West Coast shipyard. He is somewhat retarded in his efforts by his mystified brother, Chester Morris, but is assisted considerably by Carole Landis, who is assigned to pretend to be his wife. (The consequences hereafter are obvious.) And it all boils up to a big fight between Mr. O'Brien and the chief villain aboard a new ship while a time-bomb ticks away. It is fair to say that the performances are not shaded with nuances. Mr. O'Brien's first venture as a producer is as subtle as a right to the jaw.


Biff! Bang!
SECRET COMMAND, screen play by Roy Chanslor; adapted from the story. The Saboteurs by John and Ward Hawkins; directed by Edward Sutherland; produced by Phil Ryan; a Terneen Production presented by Columbia Pictures. At Loew's Criterion.
Sam Gellagher . . . . . Pat O'Brien
Jill McCann . . . . . Carole Landis
Jeff Gallagher . . . . . Chester Morris
Lea Damaron . . . . . Ruth Warrick
Red Kelly . . . . . Barton MacLane
Brownell . . . . . Tom Tully
Miller . . . . . Wallace Ford
Max Lessing . . . . . Howard Freeman
Ben Royall . . . . . Erik Rolf
Curly . . . . . Matt McHugh
Shawn . . . . . Frank Sully
Simms . . . . . Frank Fenton
James Thane . . . . . Charles D. Brown
Joan . . . . . Carol Nugent
Paul . . . . . Richard Lane


Review of Secret Command by anonymous viewer

The film is based on a story THE SABOTEURS taken from the Saturday Evening Post by John and Ward Hawkins. The story is an absorbing one but it has been given mediocre treatment in this Grade B wartime melodrama, set in a shipyard.

Pat O'Brien is an undercover agent who is set up in his home town with a fake wife and children to join a shipyard and ferret out Nazi saboteurs. Complications ensue in that the foreman (Chester Morris) is his brother and he is holding a grudge against O'Brien for dropping out of the family's life for four years, not even responding to news of the death of their mother, and leaving his former girlfriend (Ruth Warrick) high and dry. Considering Morris hopes to marry Warrick if she can ever get O'Brien out of her heart, he has a vested interest in suspecting his brother of shady dealings. Carole Landis plays the fake wife and this is also complicated by the fact that she and O'Brien are falling for each other, despite their pact that the arrangement is "strictly business."

There are Nazis and sympathizers not only amongst the shipyard's crew but in higher up places, places we least suspect. All this material could have made a very gripping film but instead we get a routinely directed, acted and filmed potboiler and a pretty tame spy story at that.

The hoot is that it got nominated for an Oscar for Special Effects, despite the fact that there are none in the film. This was during the early forties when every studio could name what it considered its best in the categories of Sound, Song, Original Score, Adapted Score and Special Effects and be guaranteed a nomination. In this case, the Academy was duped - I guess no one screened the films being nominated in each category. The effect is that of giving an Art Direction nod to a film shot entirely in the desert or a Costume Design nod to a film set in a nudist colony. One of the best jokes ever perpetrated on the Academy.

There are some back projection shots but these hardly constitute special effects.


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