Hollywood producer Duncan DeGrasse is preparing for the debut of his anti-Nazi motion picture, ‘The Earth is in Flames.’ To generate hype, his press agents create elaborate events for the premiere. One of these stunts involves hiring phony spies to make the audience think they’re in real danger. However, among the fake spies are German and Italian operatives.
Director: Ted Tetzlaff.
Writers: Earl Felton (screenplay), Earl Felton & Gordon Kahn (story).
Stars: John Barrymore, Frances Farmer, Eugene Pallette, Virginia Dale, Ricardo Cortez, Sig Ruman, Don Castle, William Wright, Fritz Feld, Luis Alberni, Cliff Nazarro, Andrew Tombes.
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Many thanks to John for sending me a copy of this movie, I improved the audio a bit.
Wow, late-stage alcoholism John Barrymore AND Frances Farmer before she went to the nuthouse. Interesting!
Wow! Simply awful.
Thank you for this, Jon!
A mildly funny film with the trio of Ruman, Feld, and Alberni playing Nazis and a Chico Marx-style Italian spy. It was made before the serious business of winning the war began. It is funny at times but the film becomes increasingly like a Three Stooges short. and Barrymore’s self-parody is wearing. Frances Farmer has possibly six lines not much more however she did have a striking screen presence for the few times we see her. in the end it is the trio of spies who are the best and funniest part of the film.
Ricardo Cortez, the hammy Mark Saunders of the film, would have had every reason to dislike being in it; he’d been a leading man at Paramount in the 20’s and a featured actor at Warners in the 30’s. In 1941 he was leaving movies for what would be a prosperous and secure career in high finance. He was always a professional, and seemed to enjoy this farcical role. If you think his firing squad line, “Wait! I’m too young to die!” (He was at least 40, and looked it) is silly, your head just isn’t in the right place. It’s hilarious and so is the movie.