I ESCAPED FROM THE GESTAPO (1943)

A master forger (Dean Jagger) is sprung from prison by a Nazi spy. On the road, the spy is killed and Jagger is picked up by cops who turn out to be more Nazi spies; they put the dead guy's body on train tracks so his mangled corpse will be mistaken by the cops for Jagger. The Nazis have sprung Jagger so he'll make counterfeit money that the Nazis hope to use for various reasons, including flooding the country with fake cash to cause economic chaos. A Gestapo agent (John Carrdine) is head of the gang which is headquartered at a boardwalk amusement park, and when Jagger refuses to help, Carradine informs him that his mother is being held in her home by Gestapo agents to ensure he'll play along. As the work gets started, Jagger is shown around the park where he befriends a stray kitten and flirts a bit with a woman (Mary Brian) who runs a recording booth for soldiers to record messages home. Jagger discovers that the Nazis listen to the records for information on troop movement, but he also learns that Brian is not in on the scheme. Jagger develops a plan: he engraves a secret message on the cash that will tell G-men what’s going on and where his mother is being held. A disillusioned Nazi (William Henry) winds up aiding Jagger, but the Nazis have one more card up their sleeves: setting off explosions at a nearby oil refinery.

I assumed from the title that this Monogram B-film would be set in Germany, not California, but that's OK as the boardwalk setting is an interesting one, with a nice chase through the park at the climax. This is definitely a B-movie in look and feel but most of the acting is a notch above the average. Jagger is very good as the anti-hero (by 15 minutes in, it's easy to forget that he's a crook who will probably have to go back to jail if he survives) as is Carradine as his chief tormentor. William Henry, with whom I was not terribly familiar, also does a nice job as the Gestapo agent with a conscience, which Jagger plays on to get his assistance—he calls Henry "Butcher" in reference to his brutal participation in Gestapo activities back in Germany, and Henry, haunted by those memories, switches sides. Sidney Blackmer is good as Jagger's second in command, though poor Mary Brian, as is often the case in these wartime spy films, is given little to do except fall for the (anti-)hero. There are some doldrums in the middle part of the film, but the last 15 minutes are fairly exciting. Not sure why the brief interlude with the stray kitten is in here. Reissue title: NO ESCAPE. Pictured are Henry and Jagger. [TCM]