dougdoepke The movie's timing is interesting. The release date is Feb., 1942 (IMDB), just two months after Pearl Harbor and America's entry into WWII. Clearly, the film's intent is to both inspire audiences and warn of foreign enemies. But the conspirators in the movie aren't identified (with one irrelevant exception). As a result, I'm surmising the screenplay was completed before Pearl Harbor, but war was nevertheless clearly imminent. Had production gone beyond PH, I think the enemy would have been clearly identified. Anyway, it's a rather interesting aspect of the movie's context.With its flag-waving title, no one expects anything deep or probing. Rather, the plot honors an idealized "average" American, Joe (Young), whose fortitude and ingenuity thwarts an (unidentified) enemy's attempt to steal a revolutionary bomb-sight. The narrative ties Joe's courage to that of the heroic Nathan Hale's famous "… but one life to give for my country." Thus, America can face confidently into the War knowing that average Americans retain the heroic stature of old.I like the first part showing Joe's work and home life. Surprisingly, events resist descending into treacle, mainly because of actor Young and a refusal to sentimentalize him—(He believes in God, but as a working man he sleeps in rather than going to church). At the same time, Hunt's idealized housewife is dutiful and supportive, the way a wife was expected to be. The second half, however, drifts into plot contrivance and pedestrian violence. Still, I like the way Joe tries to use happy time recollections to get him through the ordeal. Then too, the flashbacks fill in the earlier period of Joe's blissful courtship and marriage to Mary (note the Biblical first names), rounding out their background with patriotic rituals. (btw, as of 2017, she's still with us at age 100!).Not much of an analytic nature should be expected from this glimpse into wartime ideals. Nonetheless, the cast remains a winning one, along with smooth direction (except for the closing twist), and realistic locations. All in all, thanks be to TMC for digging up this obscure but revealing artifact.

LeonLouisRicci This one came so Early after Pearl Harbor that it can be seen more as a Rousing Call to Arms and is often Mislabeled a Propaganda Piece. It is also so "In Your Face" and Unambiguous in its Flag Waving that it actually seems Refreshing because it is so Honest.Everything here is Quintessential "Americana". The Title, Married Couple with Child in Suburbia, the Pledge of Allegiance (without "Under God" by the way), the Nathan Hale Story, the Factory, References to Church Going and Sunday School, Home Mortgages, the Kid's Writing Tablet, and more.It's Surprising Robert Young didn't ask His Wife to Pass the Apple Pie when They Gather for a "Father's Day" Dinner. Taken at Face Value (and that's all there is) it is a Good Thriller with a Brutal Torture Scene, made Tolerable by Flashbacks of more Americana and a Patriotic Voice inside Joe's Head telling Him to "Keep a Secret" for His Family's and Country's sake. Viewed Today it can seem to Drag its Message Heavy and Long, but it all Works as an Interesting Time Capsule, circa 1942 America through the Eyes of an Average "Joe".

sol ***SPOILERS*** Family man hard worker and loyal American aircraft plant worker Joe Smith, Robert Young, has his loyalty put to the test in the movie "Joe Smith, American". That's when he's kidnapped by four thugs Punchy, Noel Madison, Shoe Stain, Dan Costello, and the Turk, Joseph Anthony, together with their leader Snakering, ???. The evil quartet try to beat top secret information out of Joe on a new US Military bomb-sight that he's working on at the plant.This torture goes on for hours until knowing that Joe, no matter what they do to him, won't talk they take him for a ride in the country that to be the last ride of his life. Joe despite having the living hell beat out of him still has the presents of mind to remember every detail of what happened and even left clues to where his abductor's hideout is. Joe also makes a daring escape from the moving vehicle that almost cost him his life, by getting hit by a speeding car, when he being both tied up and blindfolded jumps out or the car!***SPOILERS*** Now rescued by the local L.A police and patched up in a nearby hospital Joe leads the cops, by remembering every detail of his kidnapping, to where the bad guys are hiding who get caught flat footed by paying a game of gin and letting their guard down! Still Mr. Big-Snakering-is yet to be found and arrested but that's all solved at the end of the movie. That's when the big jerk blows his cover by trying to be a good guy and forgetting to take, the only way that Joe can identify the rat, his ring off!P.S The Film "Joe Smith, American" has in its cast Johnny Smith, Darryl Hickman, Joe's ten year old son and Frank Faylen as the guy in the hospital waiting room, in a flashback, where Joe is waiting to find out whom his wife Mary, Marsha Hunt, would give birth to as the couples first child a boy or a girl. Both Hickman and Faylen would be reunited almost twenty years later as father and son on the hit TV show "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis".

John Seal Refreshingly free of cant and surprisingly low on propaganda, Joe Smith American is one of the best 'B' features you'll ever see--it was so good, in fact, that it opened in 1942 atop the bill at movie theatres in New York City. Robert Young plays the titular character, an all American 'Joe' who won't spill his guts about a secret bomb sight to the bad guys--even after being tortured and threatened with death. The torture sequence is surely one of the most grueling things committed to celluloid from the period, and in addition to being spectacularly shot by Charles Lawton Jr. was masterfully lit by one of MGM's superbly trained and uncredited craftsmen. The cloth binding used to blind and gag Young, coupled with the narrative use of his inner voice, anticipates the bleak and distressing Johnny Got His Gun by thirty years. And while the film is certainly a tribute to American patriotism--witness the fascinating schoolyard rendition of My Country Tis of Thee, complete with an odd fascist style salute to the flag--it pointedly allows Young's character to sleep in on Sundays and miss church!