Confessions of a Nazi Spy
Confessions of a Nazi Spy is a 1939 American spy thriller film and the first blatantly anti-Nazi film produced by a major Hollywood studio. The film stars Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, George Sanders, Paul Lukas, and a large cast of German actors, including some who had emigrated from their country after the rise of Adolf Hitler. Many of the German actors, who appeared in the film, changed their names for fear of reprisals against relatives still living in Germany. Screenwriter John Wexley based his script on real events and the articles of former FBI agent Leon G. Turrou, who had been active in investigating Nazi spy rings in the United States prior to the war, and lost his position at the Bureau when he published the articles without permission. Authors Paul Buhle and David Wagner of Radical Hollywood writing about the film said it "treated a real-life case" and that Warner Brothers had been warned by the Dies Committee "against slurring a 'friendly country'". Parts of the movie were a fictionalized account of a real-life espionage case, the Rumrich Nazi Spy Case, and the eventual trial in 1938 involving individuals convicted of spying for German government. The FBI says Rumrich Nazi Spy Case was their "first major international spy case" and that Leon Turrou "was placed in charge" and eventually fired. Guenther Gustave Maria Rumrich was arrested on February 14, 1938, and charged with spying for Germany. He came to the FBI's attention when he attempted to obtain 50 passport application forms from the Passport Office in New York City.
In the film, Francis Lederer, as Schneider, plays the equivalent part to the real Rumrich.
The film was the first anti-Nazi film from a major American studio. At the premier there were almost as many policemen and special agents in the audience as customers.
Wexley's script made a point of following the facts and real life events of the Rumrich Nazi Spy Case whose participants went to trial in 1938. The film failed at the box office. Nonetheless, it was named 1939's best film by the National Board of Review. Confessions of a Nazi Spy was banned in Germany, Japan, and many Latin American and European countries. The film was re-released in 1940 with scenes describing events that had taken place since the initial release, such as the invasions of Norway and the Netherlands. Scenes from Confessions of a Nazi Spy are shown in War Comes to America, the last of the Why We Fight propaganda film series, as well as the 2004 documentary film Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust.
- Year:
- 1939
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