This film comes much earlier than Out of the Past but both show keen detailing for their times' social, political and gender realities. Excellent depiction and good camera-work of industrial security and espionage of the day. After the opening action sequences, during which Walter Pigeon's Nick Carter establishes himself with the audience, we're treated to a series of well executed short scenes of 1939 high-tech. Technology shown as integral to the future/the coming war. Transitional image of women--on the one hand Rita Johnson's character flies an airplane in an emergency and we see the looks of pleasure on her face as she experiences her own competency. But when she lands the plane, "of course," she's overwhelmed and faints (we don't see this, we're just told). A few years before Rosie the Riveter.
A B film--these films were the television of the day--but just like T.V. today, up to 20% of them were well worth watching. And not always because of their plots, paranoid fantasies full of plot holes that they are. Some are actually interesting cultural windows onto the recent past. This is one.
A B film--these films were the television of the day--but just like T.V. today, up to 20% of them were well worth watching. And not always because of their plots, paranoid fantasies full of plot holes that they are. Some are actually interesting cultural windows onto the recent past. This is one.