This Is My Affair

In 1901, a young naval lieutenant (Taylor) is entrusted by President McKinlay with a mission to infiltrate a gang responsible for a string of bank robberies; since crucial information is evidently being leaked to the gang from high places, no one else is to be privy to the assignment. This promising premise is rather let down when the gang turns out to be the usual B movie unit: smooth-talking Donlevy, McLaglen as his brutish henchman, Stanwyck as the reluctant moll who falls for the handsome lieutenant. Routine shenanigans end with mission accomplished. But the President has been assassinated, so unless Taylor can prove it was a mission, he faces the electric chair. Sterling lead performances (plus a delightful cameo from Blackmer as Teddy Roosevelt), and elegant camerawork from Robert Planck; but it never quite makes the grade on credibility.