bkoganbing As Nazi Agent came out of MGM you might get fooled as even their B pictures such as this look like A films. The lack of any stars would give it away, but this is a great example about how MGM could make any of its product look like quality.Of course it helps here that Conrad Veidt gives a pair of performances, come to think of it three of them in this film. First as American professor and naturalized refugee from Nazi Germany, second as the new German Consul twin brother and fanatical Nazi and third as the American brother impersonating the Nazi.It all starts when Nazi Veidt decides to force American Veidt to help with the cause making his place a drop for espionage messages. But the good Veidt kills the bad Veidt and then takes his place at the German consulate and does his own little job of sabotaging the operations.Because of Conrad Veidt this World War II era propaganda flick holds up well still today. In essentially three roles the professor has to tread very carefully to find out who can be trusted. Besides Veidt performances to watch are Marc Lawrence as an Italian gangster working for them and all around rat, Ann Ayars as a French dress designer and Vichy sympathizer who has a change of heart, Martin Kosleck who was always cast as Joseph Goebbels but here is Veidt's ferret faced aide at the consulate and Dorothy Tree as a Nazi agent planted with Professor Veidt. Tree had blacklist problems and never returned to Hollywood, in fact left acting altogether.But this film is really a salute to Conrad Veidt's versatility. The plot is taken somewhat from the Ronald Colman classic The Masquerader, but the ending is straight out of that other Colman film A Tale Of Two Cities.Catch this one when it's on and be prepared to see how well it holds up.

mukava991 Nazi Agent presents a rare opportunity to see the great Conrad Veidt play a lead role (as twin brothers with opposite personalities and values, no less) in a well-preserved sound film with a solid, serious theme and lasting value. Although this is obviously a "B"-level production made on a low budget, the brisk direction by Jules Dassin, the tight and literate script and some very good supporting players, make it as satisfying as many an "A" effort. Otto is a gentle expatriate German bookseller whose quiet life in America is disrupted when his Nazi twin, Baron Hugo von Detner, threatens to reveal his illegal immigrant status to the US authorities unless he allows the Nazi spy network to use his bookstore as a message center. Otto desolately goes along for a while but when he finally resists, Hugo comes to shoot him. They struggle. Otto shoots Hugo instead, then assumes his identity and proceeds to sabotage the saboteurs, who include the memorable Martin Kosleck, whose presence in many films from this time screamed "Nazi." With his marionette-like features, lacquered hair and fey efficiency, he was a top scene stealer. Another excellent performance comes from the prolific Frank Reicher as Fritz, Hugo's aging valet who quickly realizes that his master isn't really his master. But it's really Veidt's movie, playing warm and cold, frightened and bold, kind and cruel – all with shading, subtlety and expertise. The movies suffered an irreparable loss in April 1943 when this man died on a California golf course at the age of 50.This quietly powerful film is an adventure of ideas and ideals. The ending, though not as well shot as it might have been, is both stirring and heartbreaking.

lastliberal I saw that there was a couple of Nazi films on TNT last night and decided to give them a viewing. Sometimes these old black and whites can really have interesting stories. This was true to my expectations.This was a Jules Dassin film. He was one of the most important directors in post-WWII America. Unfortunately he got caught up in the Red Scare led by Senator McCarthy and was blacklisted. he moved to Europe, where he continued to make movies.His most influential film was the heist movie Rififi, which inspired a genre of movies including Ocean's Eleven and Mission: Impossible.The movie stars Conrad Veidt, who is himself a very interesting character. Most movie goers would remember him as Gestapo Maj. Strasser in the classic Casablanca. This is interesting because he was a staunch anti-Nazi who was himself chased out of Germany under threat of assassination. He was to play Dracula in 1931, but Bela Lugosi got the job. His performance in The Man Who Laughs, was used as the basis for "The Joker" in the early Batman.Veidt give a good performance as a twin whose brother is a Nazi agent. he kills him and takes his place to fight against the Nazi underground in America.It is not a terribly exciting film, but it was suspenseful, and a chance to see one of the great American directors and a great German/British actor.

theowinthrop Conrad Veidt's career in European (and American) film from 1919 - 1939 was one as a notable star. He had played Cesar the Sonabulist in THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI in 1919, and been a star ever since. In the silent film period it was easy for him to have an international audience as Gwynplaine in THE MAN WHO LAUGHS and as King Louis XI of France in BELOVED ROGUE (with John Barrymore). But he was anti - Nazi and Veidt left Germany in 1933 and settled in England, where he remained a star. His last film in England of greatness was as the evil vizier Jafar in THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD. Then he went to Hollywood.Most Americans recall him for his American films, although he did not make many in his last three years (1940 - 1943). These included a comic villain in WHISTLING IN THE DARK, a selfish Swedish scoundrel in A WOMAN'S FACE, and Nazis in CASABLANCA (his best recalled performance - as Major Strasser), ESCAPE, and ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT. Twice he portrayed anti-Nazi Germans: ABOVE SUSPICION (where he is aiding Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray, and the villain is Basil Rathbone!), and this film - probably the most interesting of the movies he made in Hollywood. The plot is simple. Veidt plays twin brothers, one of whom has been living in the U.S. since World War I, having gotten sick of the militarism and racial crap at home. The younger brother remained behind as a dedicated careerist Nazi. The younger brother has been sent to the U.S. as a "diplomat" but in reality to head a sabotage ring. He uses some of his agents to locate the older brother, and blackmail him into acquiescing into working for the Vaterland again. The older brother is forced by circumstances (relatives in Germany may be executed or tortured if he refuses). But when he learns of the various sabotage acts planned, and when the ring members kill one of his closest friends, the older brother fights back. He confronts and kills the younger brother, and pretends he is the younger brother. Then he proceeds to destroy the sabotage ring.Veidt's Nazis were quite convincing, as he obviously based them on the people he met in Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s. Major Strasser, for example, is very businesslike - see how he confronts Rick with his file at the start of CASABLANCA and shows little concern when Rick starts reading it - and usually intelligent. He is also ready to turn into a subtly deadly threat, as when he tells Elsa about the cheapness of life in Casablanca. So the young careerist is quite true to form.But the older brother is fascinating. The issue of the "good German" was difficult to get across after 1941, as most Americans saw Hitler's Germany as a real, viable threat. It was rare, in the movies of those years, to think of making a film about Germans who were decent (it was actually easier to show Italians who were decent - see Forunio Bonanova's Italian general in FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO). If a German was good or sympathetic, he or she might have been Jewish. But Veidt's two brothers are upper crust junkers. They are part of the establishment. The older brother was in the army (unlike the younger one), so he knew what was expected of the German nobility. But he got to dislike the arrogance of the class towards all others. So he fled his native land to escape what he hated.Veidt's not the only good German in the film. For every younger brother, and Martin Kosleck, and Deborah Tree, there is a Frank Reicher and Anna Ayars who supports the decency wiped away by the Nazi regime. Veidt's older brother fall for Ayars, and in one sweet moment one sees what the Nazis have destroyed. They are seated in a car alone, and have put on the radio. The moon is out, and it is a moment for love-making. But the radio plays a piece by Felix Mendelsohn (who was Jewish, and whose music was forbidden by the Nazi regime in Germany). Ayars, sadly, says "Verboten.", and starts turning it off. Veidt gently stops her and says, "Just this once." They cuddle listening to the music.Veidt also demonstrates a trait which (oddly enough) he can share with the Nazi Kosleck. The older brother's hiding spot in America was discovered by Marc Lawrence, who has sold his services to the Nazis. But later (after the older brother has begun impersonating the dead younger one), Lawrence returns to squeeze more money out of his German employers. Kosleck tells this to Veidt (and it is obvious that Kosleck is disgusted by this greedy American). Veidt says he'll speak to Lawrence. He does open the safe and give Lawrence the money without a word. Then after Lawrence puts the money in his pocket, Veidt grabs him around the neck and with a fierce look in his eye tells him never to ask for another extra cent beyond his salary again if he knows what is good for him. Lawrence is thoroughly frightened of his "employer" after that - and the viewer actually sides with Veidt at that moment even if he had been the younger brother instead of the older one.NAZI AGENT was a programmer, but it shows what would have been Veidt's ability to play a hero in American films. If he had survived World War II he probably would have been a star along the lines of his French contemporary Charles Boyer, playing good characters as well as bad ones. He did not have the fortune to survive, but we know what he might have been like.