John Garfield and Maureen O'Hara star in this fast-moving and if I'm being honest, occasionally confusing wartime spy-thriller. He's an ex-Spanish Civil War vet who's the custodian of a classic cinematic Magoffin, the regimental standard of a company which upset Hitler by killing his favourite general, to the extent that old Adolf will use any resource to get it back. A victim of both physical and psychological torture, Garfield is prone to flashbacks of a man who walks with a pronounced limp although you just know there's going to be a reckoning with this very nemesis at the climax of the picture.
He's come back to America to investigate the suspicious death of his former colleague and best friend also suspected of knowing the standard's whereabouts and it's not long before he's up to his neck in intrigue involving more death, deception and dreadful dreams although there's a measure of consolation for him in the involvement of the beautiful O'Hara as an is-she-isn't-she femme-fatale as well as a host of other characters involved in the mix.
As I've indicated, for me there were perhaps too many characters running around in too much plot, but Garfield just about carries it off with an unusual mixture of paranoia and tough-guy smarts. Besides O'Hara's nice turn as the initially icy siren, there's good support from Walter Slezak as a villainous doctor whose chosen specialist subject is, wouldn't you know it, torture in all its forms, Martha O'Driscoll as a moxy young torch-singer and even a pre-Schultz from "Hogan's Heroes" John Banner as her piano-playing accompanist, although everyone in the extended cast seemed to do their bit.
Directed by Richard Wallace who just about manages to keep up with events, with some nice noir tropes thrown in for good measure, this one will baffle as much as It entertains but is worth a watch for all that.
He's come back to America to investigate the suspicious death of his former colleague and best friend also suspected of knowing the standard's whereabouts and it's not long before he's up to his neck in intrigue involving more death, deception and dreadful dreams although there's a measure of consolation for him in the involvement of the beautiful O'Hara as an is-she-isn't-she femme-fatale as well as a host of other characters involved in the mix.
As I've indicated, for me there were perhaps too many characters running around in too much plot, but Garfield just about carries it off with an unusual mixture of paranoia and tough-guy smarts. Besides O'Hara's nice turn as the initially icy siren, there's good support from Walter Slezak as a villainous doctor whose chosen specialist subject is, wouldn't you know it, torture in all its forms, Martha O'Driscoll as a moxy young torch-singer and even a pre-Schultz from "Hogan's Heroes" John Banner as her piano-playing accompanist, although everyone in the extended cast seemed to do their bit.
Directed by Richard Wallace who just about manages to keep up with events, with some nice noir tropes thrown in for good measure, this one will baffle as much as It entertains but is worth a watch for all that.