Criminals Within

This early semi-noir – which was actually shelved for some two years! – from director Lewis (who would later deservedly acquire a cult reputation) is a thoroughly routine if convoluted programmer, albeit pacy and short enough to be tolerable nonetheless.

Being a wartime production, of course, it involves secret formulas and foreign agents – while the young military hero is, for most of the duration, mistaken for both murderer and spy (actually, the eminent scientist killed in the opening moments is his brother). He's later joined by a female reporter in his effort to outwit the villains – who use a cobbler shop in the vicinity of a U.S. military base (already infiltrated by two members) to pass information to the enemy. For the record, the film includes some now politically incorrect footage involving colored persons employed in servile capacities (even if they get to take part in the climax naturally depicting the comeuppance of the spy ring); by the way, the wrap-up to the film is most abrupt!

Though, as I said, Lewis would eventually become a force to be reckoned with in "Film Noir" (MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS [1945], GUN CRAZY [1950] and THE BIG COMBO [1955]), there's very little evidence of the style typically associated with the genre here. Incidentally, another early film of his I'd watched was the mildly entertaining Bela Lugosi vehicle INVISIBLE GHOST (1941); this, then, reminds me that I've recently acquired another popular 'B' horror effort which Lewis directed – namely THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET (1942), starring Lionel Atwill, and which I may get to sooner rather than later on the strength of this (being from the same era and all)