South of Panama

An engaging, very poor man's 'North by Northwest' scripted for PRC by Sydney Sheldon & Ben Roberts before they went on to bigger things; with the MacGuffin an uncharacteristically dapper, moustached Lionel Royce and his goons are after being "protective paint" for camouflaging bombers.

Most of the cast wear big suits with even bigger shoulders; including button-eyed female lead Virginia Vale who spends half the film suited up as an all-American blonde and the other half (with the help of a black wig and a beauty spot) as a seductive Latino.

Roger Pryor is a reporter who's just flown into Panama. Saloon singer Virginia Vale meets him at the airport, kisses him and says to come along with her. She's there to meet her brother, Hugh Beaumont, who's just invented a paint to make planes invisible, but she's spotted a tail and figured that spies are out to snatch him for the secret. She's right, too. Later she puts on a wig and a Spanish accent and she's unrecognizable.

Actually, the script is a lot better than that; once you've accepted that the script works -- and there's a demonstration -- it make sense. It's the first movie credits for writers Ben Roberts and Sidney Sheldon. They would break up as a team, and Sheldon would win an Oscar in 1947 and devise I DREAM OF JEANNIE; Roberts would go on to create CHARLIE'S ANGELS. There's some excitement, some good humor under the direction of Jean Yarborough, some hokey stuff -- Sam McDaniel plays a stereotypical Black waiter -- and a car chase through the rugged mountains roads of the Canal Zone. If you can ignore those and Pryor's indifferent line readings, there's some fun here.

When you've only got 68 minutes to make your case, you don't have time for time wasting shots. To me, that's about the only real problem with this predictable but enjoyable romantic spy movie. The plot follows the tried and true mistaken identity approach with reporter Roger Pryor thrown under the bus by Virginia Dale who intentionally fingers him as her inventor brother, a very early role for Hugh Beaumont. From that point on poor Roger is on the wrong side of mysterious circumstances and meets Vale in and out of disguise but for some reason can't figure it's the same person but, well, who really cares in these sort of movies? A new paint is the McGuffin and that would be fine except they take a full 6 minutes, almost 10% of the movie, on meaningless plane sequences.

One could easily envision William Powell in the Pryor role but Vale is a better match for her role than Loy would be; if you know early Powell, you know Pryor's mannerisms. Except for the needless filler, I'd give this 7 stars. You know exactly what is going to happen, when, but it's a painless ride and generally keeps moving along so if you've got an hour to spare, it's a decent movie.

Chemist Paul Martin (Hugh Beaumont) has invented a special kind of paint, intended to use on airplanes, to make them less vulnerable to anti aircraft guns. As this invention could boost the security of the Panama Canal, the scientist is bringing a visit to a military base in that area, to demonstrate what his invention is all about. (Using "with kind permission" of the RAF a model of a Hudson. Some authentic newsreels showing clusters of bombers have been added to the movie) The leader of a (German ?) spy ring, who uses the role of hotel manager as a cover, has intercepted a telegram from the scientist to his sister, who's staying in that hotel. In it, the brother asks her not to come to the airport to pick him up. The hotel manager however sends her another telegram, asking her to come to the airport. This way his agents will recognize who they will have to kidnap. The sister however realizes that something isn't OK. In stead of rushing to her brother, she runs to a man standing behind her brother, and starts to embrace him. Mike Lawrence (played by Roger Pryor) later turns out to be a reporter, is of course somewhat surprised, but isn't minding too much being kissed by the blonde. (Pryor already played a reporter before, in "Missing Girls' from 1936). The enemy agents mistake him for the scientist. The attempt to kidnap him fails however. Several other attempts to lay hands on the formula of the special paint will be made, but of course the enemy agents –hey, this is a 1941 movie after all- will be outsmarted by the hero.

In fact it's a rather silly story, since it's quite strange that such an important scientist with an invention vital for US security is staying in a (not so) ordinary hotel. The logical thing to do with such a VIP would have been to keep him locked in a military camp, guarded by a bunch of mean looking MP's. But well, you'll have to accept this illogic part of the script, for otherwise there wouldn't be a story of course. Like often in the 1930's-1940's, the movie isn't politically correct towards Afro-Americans either. The filmmakers apparently just couldn't resist to add a scene, in which the friendly black hotel servant unnecessarily has to roll with cliché bulging eyes, after a corpse hidden in a cupboard fell down on his back. At that time, it were only whites who were supposed to be heroic and quick with their fists, saving beautiful ladies in distress or the country against vicious saboteurs and spies. The role of Afro-Americans then often was reduced to such grotesque stereotyping scenes. Finally, as so often in spy movies, the female lead character is playing a night club singer. Yet another aspect of a not so resourceful script.

I quite enjoyed Virginia Vale though. She clearly had a lot of fun playing night club singer Dolores Esteban. (A kind of fun that reminded me a bit of that of French actress Mireille Darc in the spy spoof "Les Barbouzes") This part of her double role allowed her to talk with a zany Spanish accent, and teasing reporter Mike Lawrence about a certain blond lady (the scientist's sister). In fact -unknown to Lawrence at the beginning- Dolores happens to be that same blonde, covered with a black wig, to give her a "latino" appearance. It's only at the end of the movie that he adds 2 and 2.

I'd give this B-movie a 6/10. Although better than ridiculous films such as "Adventure in Iraq" (1943), "Panama Menace" aka "South of Panama" is by far not as good as "Across the Pacific" (1942) with Bogart & Sydney Greenstreet. Rather a movie of interest for the "completist" collecting spy movies/political thrillers than for the average viewer hoping to spend a pleasant evening. The movie seems to be relatively obscure by the way:I didn't come across whatever lobby cards or posters of it in any of the main selling places (Moviegoods, Heritage Auctions etc.) To find a copy of the movie itself, check out eBay USA or Ioffer.com, you'll certainly find it there somewhere. Ben Vanhees Belgium

Just to help wasting time. From the early forties, it is after all an agreeable moment to spend, if you crave for B movies taking place in exotic countries. This one could be seen as a very poor man's CASABLANCA like rip-offs. One more and not the most to be remembered of. I repeat, that's not a junk because there are many veiwers, moviegoers searching lost films from this perod. A sort of CASABLANCA scheme or at least atmosphere inspiration, but also with a bit of Alfred Hitchcock like espionage film. There is nothing exceptional, I warn you. Directed by a rather sympathetic film director, B film director, Jean Yarbrough. Not his best, not his worst either.