FIRST YANK INTO TOKYO (1945)

This war movie, released just a month after the bombing of Hiroshima, has, I believe, the distinction of being the first movie to use the A-bomb as a plot device. Otherwise, it's a fairly standard low budget film from the war era, mixing propaganda, romance, and sacrifice with a couple of interesting though outrageous plot twists. Tom Neal (of the great B-noir DETOUR) plays an American pilot who is asked to pull off a secret-agent stunt: infiltrate a Japanese POW camp to free an atomic scientist (Marc Cramer) who has information crucial to completing the atomic bomb. The Army knows that Neal was raised in Japan, speaks Japanese, and also knows something about the "Japanese" mindset, a "reverse, corkscrew way of thinking." The first bizarre plot twist: in order to get into Japan, Neal undergoes plastic surgery so he looks Japanese. He agrees to go through with the plan, feeling he has little to lose since the love of his life, an Army nurse (Barbara Hale), was killed at Bataan. But once he's at the POW camp, with fake identity papers provided by Chinese and Korean resistance members, he finds that Hale is alive. With the help of a Korean agent (Keye Luke), Neal arranges to get Cramer and Hale out via submarine. The second odd twist: the camp commander (Richard Loo) is Neal's old college roommate; despite Neal's new face, Loo keeps thinking that there's something oddly familiar about him. This builds up some suspense in the last 15 minutes of the film as Neal finally gives himself away with an unconscious tic that Loo recognizes. Feeling that Hale could never love him with "the face of a Jap" (even though Hale, once she knows who he is, insists she still loves him), Neal arranges to stay behind with Luke and the two of them face certain death fighting off dozens of Japanese soldiers, allowing the sub to escape and allowing the Americans to drop the bomb (shown in what must have been very fresh newsreel footage). Neal's make-up, derided by some critics, isn't bad, and the performances are adequate all around. The soap-operaish plot devices, though totally unbelievable, are sort of fun and make the otherwise bland goings-on quite bearable. [TCM]