"Nazi Agent" Review

 

by Daniel White

Up until December 1941, Hollywood sometimes appeared lackluster in it’s denunciation of Nazi Germany and what position it should take concerning the war that was raging overseas. None of the studio executives were pro-Nazi, of course (except for Darryl Zanuck at Twentieth Century Fox, most were Jewish), but they were pro-business. They didn't want to alienate ticket buyers who were adamant in their belief that the USA should remain neutral in the conflagration that was consuming Europe. Also, an uneasy appeasement of the German government existed, preventing most of them from criticizing a regime they presumably found repellent.

All that changed with Pearl Harbor, and once America was at war, Hollywood turned into an effective and efficient propaganda machine. It quickly began turning out patriotic and uplifting films, some of which also served another purpose: to demonize the enemy. Whether portraying Nazi brutality or the inherent “sneakiness” of the Japanese, Hollywood left all uncertainty behind and became a powerful tool in helping America win the war.

MGM's Nazi Agent was released in January of 1942, the studio wasting no time in lobbing a direct hit against Hitler and his sympathizers working in secret, stateside. The studio had actually taken its gloves off once before and attacked the Fuhrer head-on with The Mortal Storm, a film released in June of 1940. An unusually candid depiction of the barbarism that existed under the Nazi’s, MGM movies were immediately banned in Germany and its occupied territories. Only Warner Brothers did it sooner with Confessions of a Nazi Spy, released in May of 1939.

The studios should be applauded for their anti-Nazi stance, though it begs the question, "Why did it take them over six years to do it?" Of course the answer is profit, money inevitably being more important than morality. Hollywood still hoped to market its movies overseas, and when that became next to impossible, appealing to American patriotism looked like a better way to make a buck.

The great Conrad Veidt plays dual roles in Nazi Agent, brothers who oppose each other politically. When Nazi diplomat Hugo is killed during a tussle between the two, his brother, Otto, assumes his identity. Living illegally in the USA, Otto sets about destroying the sabotage ring his brother had attempted to blackmail him into joining.

It's pure Hollywood hokum but with Jules Dassin (making his feature film debut) at the helm, a talented group of supporting players, and a more than serviceable screenplay, the movie is an enjoyable piece of Nazi-baiting propaganda.

The flick opens with a montage of destruction: factories in flames, bridges blown up, aircraft crashing to the ground. These scenes all take place behind a spider web that has been imprinted on the screen, which is lifted as a press conference is in session with the new German consul (Veidt). Subtlety has been abandoned, MGM is going straight for the German jugular.

Conrad Veidt is a delight in the twin roles of haughty Hun Hugo and his humble stamp collecting brother, Otto. A star of German cinema (he played the somnambulist in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), Veidt had fled the nation of his birth shortly after Hitler came to power. Virulently anti-Nazi and newly married for a third time (his wife was Jewish), he left Germany in 1933 for England, appearing in British films for several years. Arriving in Hollywood in 1940, he knew he would be typecast playing Nazis. Veidt accepted his cinematic fate, provided that he would never have to play one sympathetically.

In Nazi Agent, Conrad Veidt gets his wish, there is nothing sympathetic in his portrayal of the cruel, homicidal Hugo. The same can be said for Martin Kosleck, who plays his slithery sycophantic aide, Kurt. Kosleck's bread-and-butter was in playing Nazis (he aped look-alike Joseph Goebbels five times!) and like Veidt, was fervently opposed to the fascists who were busy devouring his country of origin.

One aspect of the film that is curious is its avoidance of the poisonous anti-semitism that was the cornerstone of Nazi policy. Except for an almost casual reference to Mendelssohn (“forbidden”), the movie chooses to focus on the saboteurs, neglecting the ideology. A calculated decision on MGM’s part -- all Americans can get behind spies determined to destroy their chemical plants and infrastructure. Unfortunately, not all Americans were that passionate about the evils of hating others born of a different race or religion.

The “Tiffany” of Hollywood studios, MGM also turned out some excellent B movies like Nazi Agent (and for a brief time in the thirties, some truly creepy horror films): she is a grand lady who doesn’t mind rolling around in the muck when the occasion.

Veidt is successful as philatelist turned Nazi fighter, Otto Becker - natch. He breaks up the spy ring, and is even able to save the woman he loves (Ann Ayars) from being implicated with the others. A Mata Hari of sorts full of self-loathing, she has come to despise the Nazi “cause", and is desperate to get out. In the end, unable to expose his subterfuge as Baron von Detner, the Nazi agent of the title, Otto is summoned back to Germany where he will inevitably be put to death, denounced as a traitor by the slimy Kurt.

Again, kudos to Conrad Veidt, a respected actor, and more important a decent human being, who unfortunately would die a little over a year after completing Nazi Agent. His most famous American film role was still waiting for him: the determined Major Strasser, in the immortal Casablanca. Another villainous Nazi that Veidt was destined to play, it is a tribute to him as an actor that he played them so well. From Caligari to Casablanca, Conrad Veidt had one of the most distinguished film careers ever.

Finally, as a tribute to the man, I’d like to close this piece with his rousing, final speech in Nazi Agent. It's a stirring bit of Hollywood patriotism, directed at the noxious Kurt, but in reality, addressed to the world:

"But I am only one, one of a 130 million Americans, who together with all the good people of the world are rising to crush you and everything you stand for, once and for all.”

Somehow I think Mr. Veidt would prefer to be remembered for those inspiring words, more than anything else he ever did on celluloid.

With Frank Reicher as Otto’s loyal man servant, Fritz, and Dorothy Tree, Marc Lawrence, Moroni Olsen and Sidney Blackmer as fellow Nazi saboteurs and sympathizers, Nazi Agent is available on YouTube.