Navy Secrets (1939)

Navy Secrets (1939)


Plot Summary

Due to the work of a Naval-intelligence officer, Carol Mathews, (Fay Wray) posing as Carol Evans, Chief-Petty-Officer Jimmy Woodford is arrested and charged with selling military secrets to agents of a foreign government, via the ruse of buying-and-selling foreign postage stamps. Chief Petty Officer Steve Fletcher, (Grant Withers) posing as Steve Roberts is assigned to find the members and leader of the gang by delivering an envelope to them with the explanation that Jimmy asked him to do so as a favor as Jimmy was spending a few days in the brig for being A.W.O.L. Steve Fletcher/Roberts has no idea of where to start other than knowing the name of Jimmy's girl-friend. But Navy "intelligence" neglects to inform him that the "girl-friend" is also an agent working undercover. He contrives to meet her accidentally at a shoe-shine stand with an explanation that he is a buddy of Jimmy's, and have her take him on Jimmy's usual route. She agrees, and they start at Nick Salado's café, have a fine grilled-fish dinner but Nick will not accept deliverance of the envelope. But Nick suggests that they take the envelope to Joe Benji's cocktail lounge, but not before Nick has a waiter spill soup on Steve so that Steve will need to go to the restroom and clean up...where Nick has a pickpocket, posing as a singing drunk, ready to relieve Steve of the envelope. But Steve has left the envelope at the table. Steve and Carol glide over to Joe Benji's, and Joe thinks Slavins might take the envelope and Slavins passes them on to Eldredge, posing as Peter Drake for no evident reason, and it takes a while before a man with a German-accent shows up ready to pay for the envelope.

While a bit vague the summary basically spoils the "twist" in this movie but honestly? It doesn't matter because this flick is a steaming pile of crap. Grant Withers and Fay Wray were big stars at the advent of sound and were making A films but just a few short years later they were slumming it out for poverty row studio Monogram Pictures. I will say one thing for the two leads. They try their damndest to save the movie with their charm but it just doesn't work.

The stupidity of Naval Intelligence not cluing their own agents onto the fact that they're working together is just mind numbingly bad and for most of the movie you see our two leads wandering around NYC trying to find the head of the spy ring buying the naval secrets. There's even a scene which seemed like it belonged somewhere else where Withers and Wray were acting like a couple of teenagers in love and there's a kid riding around on his bike being annoying as hell. It was a bit surreal and felt like something out of some comedy flick than anything else.

One thing that WAS good about the movie was how the spy ring folks were vaguely Germanic without being outed as being Nazis. It was almost a precursor to WWII propaganda films where you'd see fifth columnists being busted up. So at least they have some foresight going for it I guess....

1/2 * mainly on the strength of Fay Wray's charms as an actress and in the looks department.


Yeesh, let's hope the next movie will be better.