DigitalRevenantX7 During World War II, Nazi agents operating in the US have managed to steal a top secret radio transmitter that could broadcast signals in near-stealth conditions. Using this invention, they direct a Japanese submarine off the US coast to make attacks on Allied shipping. The FBI decides to spring a trap – they get a noted radio technician fired from his job in order to use him as bait. Sure enough, the ruse works. The tech is approached by the Nazi agents for repair work when their transmitter breaks down. The tech, helped along by a female FBI agent as an insurance plan, attempts to sabotage the Nazis' plot to bring down Allied oil tankers.Submarine Alert is an old spy thriller from the early 1940s, when World War II was in full swing. The film was part of a large array of B-budget spy thrillers designed to get the public on the Allied side. Of course, the problem with many of these films at the time was a shortage of original ideas & poorly written scripts.Submarine Alert is one of these poorly-written spy capers. The film is reasonable enough for a once-over & has some rudimentary suspense but the story is sabotaged by not having enough thought put into it. The FBI's plan to get a radio technician fired so he can lead them to the Nazis' illegal shortwave transmitter was a dumb idea – wouldn't it be better to get the hero to play along with the plan instead of having him strung up as bait? The characters are drawn up to stereotype & the various chases & shootouts don't hold up too well in today's age. The el cheapo DVD print seen here is in terrible condition – the transfer's high contrast makes reading the opening credits near on impossible so you won't be able to get much information from it.

Michael O'Keefe Director Frank McDonald takes Maxwell Shane's screenplay and uses World War Two-era paranoia to make a nice, swift crime drama. Well experienced radio engineer Lee Deerhold(Richard Arlen)is fired from his job at a time when people are pinching pennies and looking for any kind of job. He is all part of an FBI scheme to unwittingly infiltrate a gang of Nazi saboteurs, who have stolen a recently developed small radio transmitter. Deerhold is to gain the confidence of the Nazis as he "fine tunes" the stolen transmitter that is to be used to send top secret shipping schedules to an offshore Japanese submarine nest. Deerhold realizes that he is caught in a trap, when he is told of his own involvement with the government and begins running from the Nazis with their newly calibrated "code sender". The story moves rather quickly, because it only runs 67 minutes. Filmed completely in Los Angeles. Other players: Wendy Barrie, Nils Asther, John Miljan, Patsy Nash, Roger Pryor and Dwight Frye.

sol **SPOILERS** With the Nazis having stolen this advanced radio transmitter from American electronic expert Johann Bergstrom they now have the upper hand in transmitting information to theirs allies the Japs in when and where US oil tankers will be in the South Pacific. With that important information the Japs can get their subs to track the oil tankers down and sink them before they reach and resupply, with their precious cargo, the US Navy on the battlefront. This has a lone Japanese submarine being able to pick off the oil tankers almost as soon as they leave port with the US Military, during all the confusion, not being able to come to their rescue while the sub is able make its escape.Looking ahead the FBI realizes that the transmitter sooner or later would need repairing and, with the cooperation of the electronic industry, has all the top electronic engineers on the West Coast fired from their jobs. In the FBI knowing that one of them will end up being hired by the Nazis, without his knowing it, to do the repair job for them. This has Lee Deerhold without a job and desperate for cash in paying his bills as well as for a brain operation on his step-daughter Tina, whom he rescued from Nazi Germany after the Nazis murdered her parents, end up working for them. Unknown to Lee he's being secretly tracked by the FBI in the person of Agent Ann Patterson who used the occasion, that was planned in advance, of her purse being snatched to get introduced to him. It isn't long when Lee realizes that he'd been set up by Ann and that makes things worse not just for him but the FBI who now are in danger of their scheme, in planting Lee inside the Nazi spy network, coming apart at the seams!The usual Hollywood made war film during WWII with a slight twist to it. In that it shows that even non-American citizens who Lee Deerfield is one of them are just as patriotic and willing to fight and die for their country as any red blooded American. This, being a non American citizen, is in fact the reason that Lee felt that he was canned from his electronic job as the company's top radio repairman. And it was that very reason that Lee's Nazi employers who were running, as a cover, the phony Old Mill Hot Spring Spa tried to recruit the disillusioned Lee into their spy-ring.***SPOILERS*** With him knowing that the security of the United States is on the line Lee does his best to alert the FBI in what the Nazis, and their Japanese cohorts, are up to! This has Lee get stymied by the head Nazi Dr. Honeker by him doing his impersonation act in him impersonating someone that's, whom Honeker had murdered, already dead! Locked inside a steam room at the Old Mill Spa together with FBI Agent Patterson Lee's only chance of surviving in being, together with Ann, steamed to death is both his own electronic expertise and teenage radio ham operator Johnny. It's that combination of good old Amerian ingenuity and inventiveness that brought the Nazi spy-ring to a sudden end before it could do any more damage. It also has Lee not only become, by and act of Congress, an instant American citizen and, lucky for him, get drafted into the US Army but get Tina that brain operation, free of charge, that ended up saving her life.

ksf-2 Bergstrom, a radio engineer expert goes missing during WW II. Deerhold, a resident- alien radio engineer (Richard Arlen, Santa Fe Trail) helps Ann Patterson (Wendy Barrie, Love on a Bet, the "Falcon" movies) when her purse gets snatched. The viewer sees the FBI trying to track down where the enemy radio transmissions are originating, but so far, no luck. Arlen and Barrie get caught up in the search for the people behind the radio transmissions before more US ships get sunk. Maxwell Shane had written many of these military action films in the 1940s. It's all wrapped up neatly in the last minute of the film, and then the usual affirmation of US loyalty by Arlen to the viewing public. Some interesting scenery of downtown LA. Also some choppy edits, and long blackout pauses between scenes. This is one of the films in the "50 Action Classics" from Treeline/TCM. Some big Hollywood names might have added some zing.