Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Search cinema listings

Browse cinemas A-Z

Search 20,000 reviews

 

Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)

Director: Anatole Litvak

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Anti-Nazi propaganda film from Warners, with Robinson (like Cagney, doing an about-face from gangster roles to more respectable characters) as the G-Man ferreting out Nazi fifth columnists working in America. Topically following hard on the heels of several anti-Nazi trials in 1938, the film achieved great popular and critical success in America (though banned in many Latin American and European countries); now, for all its admirable anti-Fascist relevance, it seems weakened by its patriotic flag-waving and the pseudo-documentary approach (sacrificing suspense) taken by Litvak. But the quietly determined Robinson, the sinister Sanders (as a Nazi villain, a role he would later develop in Lang's Man Hunt), and Lederer (the man duped into becoming a spy by his vain egocentricity) lend a power to the film that makes it still worth watching.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Top Stories

Time Out's 50 greatest monster movies

Time Out's 50 greatest monster movies

As Joe Johnston’s long-awaited reinvention of Universal’s howl-at-the-moon classic ‘The Wolfman’ hits cinemas, Time Out lists our 50 favourite cinematic stalkers, growlers, slashers and biters.

Mark Kermode: A life in film

Mark Kermode: A life in film

Dave Calhoun chats to Britain's most outspoken film critic and pundit ahead of the release of his memoirs

Has Ricky Gervais gone all serious?

Has Ricky Gervais gone all serious?

The trailer to 'Cemetery Junction' suggests that its writer-director is suppressing his funny bone.

The genius of Roman Polanski

The genius of Roman Polanski

Ahead of his new film, 'The Ghost', we must forget the media circus and remember the artist pleads Wally Hammond

Oscars 2010: The nominees

Oscars 2010: The nominees

Tom Huddleston offers his acute analysis on the list of nominees for the 2010 Academy Awards

Rotterdam 2010: Geoff Andrew's report

Rotterdam 2010: Geoff Andrew's report

Geoff Andrew finds rich leftfield pickings at the 2010 Rotterdam Film Festival

Can Tom Ford cut it as a director?

Can Tom Ford cut it as a director?

After ten years as creative head of Gucci, Tom Ford has directed his first movie. Nina Caplan meets him

Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade

Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade

So here it is… Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this.

2009: The year in film

2009: The year in film

We look back at the best movies of 2009 and pick out some of our favourite lists, features and interviews.