Confessions of a Nazi Spy Overview:

Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) was a Drama - Black-and-white Film directed by Anatole Litvak and produced by Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner and Robert Lord.

SYNOPSIS

Using the style of a wartime propaganda film, this pseudo-documentary is based on evidence presented by former G-men during the 1938 spy trials that resulted in the conviction of four persons. The film presents the belief that German leaders used German-American rallies and other tactics to unravel democracy. Along with the staged action, the film uses newsreel shots of Hitler and a commentator's voiceover to add to its authenticity.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

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BlogHub Articles:

Watching 1939: Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)

on Aug 29, 2019 From Comet Over Hollywood

rue events with a spy ring based in New York and the 1938 trial that followed, the Guenther Gustave Rumrich Spy Case in 1938.In 2011, I announced I was trying to see every film released in 1939. This new series chronicles films released in 1939 as I watch them.?As we start out this blog feature, thi... Read full article


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Quotes from

Edward 'Ed' Renard: I told you I thought this man is an amateur. If he is, why did he become a spy? Well, because he's been listening to speeches, and reading pamphlets about Nazi Germany and believing them. Unfortunately, there are thousands like him in America. Half-witted, hysterical crackpots who go "Hitler-happy" from overindulgence in propaganda that makes them believe that they're supermen.


Edward 'Ed' Renard: [to Schneider] Don't worry. There's no third-degree with the Federal bureau of Investigation.


[last lines]
[Kellogg and Renard hear remarks about the spy case by diners at a lunch counter]
U.S. Atty. Kellogg: The voice of the people.
Edward 'Ed' Renard: Thank God for such people.
U.S. Atty. Kellogg: Yes, thank God.


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Facts about

This was the first anti-Nazi movie made in Hollywood before the start of World War II.
A libel suit for $75,000 was filed on Monday, July 3, 1939 in U.S. Federal Court against Warner Bros. by Katherine Moog, in which she claimed that the picture "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" and its advertisements defamed her character. Plaintiff alleged that Warners, without her consent, used her name to exploit the picture and connected her with the character "Erika Wolf," played by Lya Lys.
According to the article "Hollywood Goes to War" by Colin Shindler in the film history tome "The Movie", "Warner Brothers, who had made the one explicitly anti-Nazi film of the US pre-war period (1939, "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" were unofficially told by the US government not to make any more such pictures. In April 1940 the news filtered back to Hollywood that several Polish exhibitors who had shown "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" had been hanged in the foyers of their own cinemas."
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Also directed by Anatole Litvak




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Also produced by Hal B. Wallis




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Also released in 1939




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