This 1942 film remains an enigma to me. First, it starts out as a comedy where Jordan, a gangster, needs a double as everyone is trying to kill him.
The picture then goes into Jordan suddenly trying to avoid the draft and then becoming mixed up with a Nazi spy ring. Just a shame that Alan Ladd, as Jordan, first sees the evil of Nazism when they beat up his "hired" mother, Mabel Paige, who steals the films with her antics. Paige is proof in itself that everyone has and needs a mother, even when she is hired to impersonate this.
Sheldon Leonard is the real heavy in the film. He starts off as the guy wanting to rub out Ladd so that he can take over the gang, and then he is fully involved with the Nazi group. This is too much for even a good character actor like Leonard was.
The film shows that even a bad guy can redeem himself.
The picture then goes into Jordan suddenly trying to avoid the draft and then becoming mixed up with a Nazi spy ring. Just a shame that Alan Ladd, as Jordan, first sees the evil of Nazism when they beat up his "hired" mother, Mabel Paige, who steals the films with her antics. Paige is proof in itself that everyone has and needs a mother, even when she is hired to impersonate this.
Sheldon Leonard is the real heavy in the film. He starts off as the guy wanting to rub out Ladd so that he can take over the gang, and then he is fully involved with the Nazi group. This is too much for even a good character actor like Leonard was.
The film shows that even a bad guy can redeem himself.