Madame Spy ** (1942, Constance Bennett, Don Porter, John Litel) – Classic Movie Review 13,596

A US intelligence officer goes undercover and infiltrates a ring of Nazi spies in the 1942 American spy film Madame Spy starring Constance Bennett, Don Porter and John Litel.

Director Roy William Neill’s 1942 American spy film Madame Spy is produced and distributed by Universal Pictures and stars Constance Bennett, Don Porter, John Litel and Edward Brophy.

Joan (Constance Bennett) and war correspondent David Bannister (Don Porter), marry and have a series of wartime espionage adventures. David becomes a radio reporter and does an exposé on the Nazi connections of an American industrialist, who is killed by Nazi agent Peter Rolf (John Litel) to protect his Nazi spy ring. The husband gets worried when Joan starts behaving oddly and seeing some suspect old friends, and gets alarmed when the wife meets her close friend Peter Rolf in upstate New York. Slowly but surely the husband concludes that she is a spy,

Madame Spy is a largely uninteresting and over-familiar but appealingly short (64 minutes) and brisk wartime paranoia propaganda spy thriller, with a daft, melodramatic script by Lynn Riggs and Clarence Upson Young and much unbelievable acting from actors who seem to be trying too hard. It should have been a contender. Constance Bennett does add some style and star allure however, partly compensating for Edward Brophy and Jimmy Conlin’s ghastly comedy turns. And George Robinson’s noir photography is also stylish, with Roy William Neill’s direction entirely capable. (He directed many of the Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies, which alas were also beset by Nazis.)

Also in the cast are Edward Brophy as Mike Reese, John Eldredge as Carl Gordon, Edmund MacDonald as Lt. Cmdr. Bill Drake, Nana Bryant as Alicia Rolf, Jimmy Conlin as Winston, Selmer Jackson as Harrison K Woods, Nino Pipitone as Miro, Cliff Clark as Inspector Varden, John Dilson as Proprietor Martin, John Berkes, Eddie Coke, Pat Costello, Rico De Montez, Norma Drury, Thornton Edwards, Jack Gardner, William Gould, Grace Hayle, Reid Kilpatrick, Alexander Lockwood, Frank Marlowe, Mira McKinney, Sidney Miller, Irving Mitchell, Anne O’Neal, Gerald Pierce, Charles Sherlock, Phil Warren, Billy Wayne, and Pat West.

Selmer Jackson (May 7, 1888 – March 30, 1971) appeared in nearly 400 films between 1921 and 1963.

Madame Spy is directed by Roy William Neill, runs 64 minutes, is made and released by Universal Pictures, is written by Lynn Riggs and Clarence Upson Young, is shot in black and white by George Robinson, is produced by Marshall Grant, is scored by Hans J Salter and Frank Skinner, and is designed by Jack Otterson.

Release date: December 11, 1942.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,596

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