(Some Spoilers) Checking the production dates for the movie "Nazi Agent" I noticed that it was finished filming on December 16, 1941 just five days after Germany's Fuhrer Adolph Hitler declared war on the US. That was in accordance with Hitler's Germany military alliance with Japan that bombed Pearl Harbor just four days earlier. This would make the movie "Nazi Agent" the first WWII film produced by a Hollywood studio that was released when the US was actually at war with the Nazi Regime! Unlike the many other anti-Nazi Hollywood made films, like "Confession of a Nazi Spy", that were released before the US was even at war with Germany. Thus making them subject, by anti-war and US isolationists groups, to accusations of being nothing more them warmongering propaganda in an effort, by Hollywood, to get the natural US into the war in Europe on the side of Great Britain and later the USSR.
The film has kindly bookstore owner and stamp collector Otto Becker, Conrad Veidt, try to start a new life in the US after he was forced to flee his homeland-Germany-after the Nazi's took over. Living the American dream Otto's life is turned upside down when his brother Hugo, also played by Veidt, who's a die in the wool Nazi pops into his house. Hugo a German diplomat is working undercover to damage US shipping in the Atlantic in an effort to get Great Britain, who at the time is getting military aid from the natural US, to give up its fight against the Nazis.
Playing alone with Hugo's demands who's blackmailing his brother, in having him possibly deported back to Germany if he doesn't go along with him, Otto tries to tip off the FBI in what Hugo and his fellow Nazi's in America are up to. This sham on Otto's part falls apart when Hugo confronts him in his home and pulls a gun on him in order to get him back into line. Hugo who's killed in the struggle with Otto has his brother, his identical twin, take over Hugo's identity and infiltrate the Nazi spy & sabotage ring that he was in charge of. Working on the inside Otto uses his disguise as Hugo to stymie the Nazi's in their attempt, through short-wave radio contact, to have their fleet of U-Boats in the Atlantic sink US shipping. Otto does this by secretly tipping off the authorities to what exactly the spy & sabotage ring are planning to do.
Not acting like the mindless and comical buffoons as their almost always depicted in most movies made about them at the time the Nazi's that includes Otto's assistant in the German consulate Kurt Richten, Martin Koslek,realize that there's a spy in their mist and start to zero in on Otto. Caught with his hands in he cookie jar Otto tries to save himself in implicating, for what he actually did, US hoodlum-who's working for the Nazis-Joe Aiello (Marc Lawrence) in the stopping of the US supply ship SS Farrington from parking itself in the locks of the Panama Canal. The Nazis planned to use the explosive laden SS Farrington, with an explosive timer hidden in it, to blow the canal sky high! Thus cutting off the US Pacific and Atlantic fleets from each other in the event of the US entering into the war.
****SPOILERS*** With his cover blown Otto could have just taken off to the Federal Authorities for protection but instead agreed to go back to Nazi Germany, and certain death, to save his lover-who works for the German consulate in New York- French fashion designer Karren De Relle, Anne Ayars. You see Karren wasn't really a Nazi but was forced, with her family back in Nazi occupied France, to go along with them in order to save both her and her families lives or, even worse, from being sent to a Nazi concentration camp.
It was this quite an courageous act on Otto's part, willingly giving up his life to save the one that he loves, that sets him apart from the the usual blood and guts heroes that Hollywood depicted in it's movies in fighting WWII, at home as well as abroad, all over the globe. This act of unselfish courage made Otto the most unique and believable, as well as tragic, of all war or peace time movie heroes coming out of Hollywood.
The film has kindly bookstore owner and stamp collector Otto Becker, Conrad Veidt, try to start a new life in the US after he was forced to flee his homeland-Germany-after the Nazi's took over. Living the American dream Otto's life is turned upside down when his brother Hugo, also played by Veidt, who's a die in the wool Nazi pops into his house. Hugo a German diplomat is working undercover to damage US shipping in the Atlantic in an effort to get Great Britain, who at the time is getting military aid from the natural US, to give up its fight against the Nazis.
Playing alone with Hugo's demands who's blackmailing his brother, in having him possibly deported back to Germany if he doesn't go along with him, Otto tries to tip off the FBI in what Hugo and his fellow Nazi's in America are up to. This sham on Otto's part falls apart when Hugo confronts him in his home and pulls a gun on him in order to get him back into line. Hugo who's killed in the struggle with Otto has his brother, his identical twin, take over Hugo's identity and infiltrate the Nazi spy & sabotage ring that he was in charge of. Working on the inside Otto uses his disguise as Hugo to stymie the Nazi's in their attempt, through short-wave radio contact, to have their fleet of U-Boats in the Atlantic sink US shipping. Otto does this by secretly tipping off the authorities to what exactly the spy & sabotage ring are planning to do.
Not acting like the mindless and comical buffoons as their almost always depicted in most movies made about them at the time the Nazi's that includes Otto's assistant in the German consulate Kurt Richten, Martin Koslek,realize that there's a spy in their mist and start to zero in on Otto. Caught with his hands in he cookie jar Otto tries to save himself in implicating, for what he actually did, US hoodlum-who's working for the Nazis-Joe Aiello (Marc Lawrence) in the stopping of the US supply ship SS Farrington from parking itself in the locks of the Panama Canal. The Nazis planned to use the explosive laden SS Farrington, with an explosive timer hidden in it, to blow the canal sky high! Thus cutting off the US Pacific and Atlantic fleets from each other in the event of the US entering into the war.
****SPOILERS*** With his cover blown Otto could have just taken off to the Federal Authorities for protection but instead agreed to go back to Nazi Germany, and certain death, to save his lover-who works for the German consulate in New York- French fashion designer Karren De Relle, Anne Ayars. You see Karren wasn't really a Nazi but was forced, with her family back in Nazi occupied France, to go along with them in order to save both her and her families lives or, even worse, from being sent to a Nazi concentration camp.
It was this quite an courageous act on Otto's part, willingly giving up his life to save the one that he loves, that sets him apart from the the usual blood and guts heroes that Hollywood depicted in it's movies in fighting WWII, at home as well as abroad, all over the globe. This act of unselfish courage made Otto the most unique and believable, as well as tragic, of all war or peace time movie heroes coming out of Hollywood.