Criminals Within (1941)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

CRIMINALS WITHIN is another forgettable and worthless crime thriller from an era full of such films. It seems like producers didn't let a lack of money or talent put them off churning out B-picture after B-picture and this one is particularly devoid of enthusiasm. The hero is the brother of a mad scientist who gets killed by enemy spies. The hero decides to go hunting the spy ring himself but nefarious elements within the army are working against him. It sounds like it could get thrilling but it never is, going through all of the elements with a distinct lack of relish and featuring below par performances throughout. It's a real dud.

It's one thing to go for laughs and have a comedy team being incompetent while going through basic training, but with a war looming over the United States, writers were very irresponsible in creating the part played by eternal juvenile Eric Linden. Not only does his incompetence get valued papers stolen, but a bunch of scientists (including his own brother) and the spy girl he loves killed. It's all over new explosives, apparently so powerful and deadly that spies will forgo creating their own. Blonde vixen canteen hostess Constance Worth is obviously no good and even when he escapes her (after breaking out of the brig), he gets hooked up with nosy reporter Ann Doran. Even with all the intrigue, I just found this an insipid, unbelievable story. Someone like Linden would be busy peeling potatoes for sure rather than working as a file clerk for a commanding officer. There have been plenty of spy movies where the good guys made boo-boo's, but they were always fixable and never threatened the entire security of the country. It's obvious that Linden will dig himself out somehow, and that's the unkindest cut of all. If this didn't have a cast of American actors, I'd think that this was made on the sly by the enemy to be anti-American propaganda.

"Criminals Within" exemplified one of many espionage thrillers that Hollywood flooded the market with before World War II. These pictures did not cost as much to make since the stories occurred in the United States and the villains who were usually fifth columnists working for an unknown government. Ostensibly, this movie amounts to little, aside from its director who made a reputation for his himself in later films. "Secret Evidence" story contributor Edward Bennett penned the screenplay from "Texas to Bataan" scenarist Arthur Hoerl's story. The action imitates the typical Hitchcock thriller that incriminates an innocent for a crime he didn't commit. Everything about "Criminals Within" complies with the formula, right down to the racist abuse of African-Americans as secondary characters in typically subservient roles.Director Joseph H. Lewis gets "Criminals Within" off to a bang-up start. An U.S. Army officer meets with a civilian scientist at a huge, three-story, brick building, in a locked room with the legend Research Dept. and Chemical Div. inscribed on the marbled glass door panel. The bespectacled Professor Carroll (George Lynn of "Hitler's Madman") produces spherical glass containers and demonstrates the formula for a top-secret military explosive. "I wouldn't risk putting anything so valuable in writing," Carroll taps his head, "I keep it here." He mixes the chemicals while the officer watches. "I shall demonstrate the process to you and you alone so that only you and I will know it." Director Lewis frames the medium shot perfectly so that we see both individuals with the glass paneled door in the background. The shadow of an unknown assailant appears at the door between the officer and Professor Carroll. Lewis cuts to a medium shot of the man behind the door and the guy smashes the glass, thrusts his revolver through the crack, and guns down Professor Carroll.The Army officer phones Military Intelligence and Martin forms a plan. "For the present, his death must remain an absolute secret," Martin informs the officer. "I'll be here to work with you." Nobody else knew about Professor Carroll's research except his younger brother, Corporal Greg Carroll (Eric Linden of "Gone with the Wind"), in Selective Service at Camp Madison. Captain Bryant (Robert Frazer of "Robin Hood"), Carroll's superior officer, summons him and inquires about a valuable document missing from his safe. Carroll had filed the document away for safekeeping. (Incidentally, Frazer as the distinction of being the first actor to portray Robin Hood.) Initially, Bryant believed Carroll had stolen the paper. Carroll remembers a list of scientists on the document, but the Bryant prohibits him from mentioning any names in front of Lieutenant John Harmon (Donald Curtis of "Bataan") who is romantically linked with Alma. Interestingly, instead of a portrait of Franklin Roosevelt on Captain Bryant's office, a picture of Abraham Lincoln hangs there. Bryant is concerned when Alma Barton (Constance Worth of "Meet Boston Blackie") enters the filing room while Greg is searching for the paper. He fears that she may have access to privileged information.Bryant detains Carroll in the guard house, but our hero escapes to warn his brother. You see, Carroll doesn't know his brother has been murdered. Our hero gets a little help from parties unknown when he finds the jail cell key in his meal. Carroll goes to the Recreation Hall to telephone his brother, but his brother's assistant answers and says he hasn't seen the professor. Carroll conceals himself in an out-of-order phone booth in the recreation room with Barton's blessing. Bryant visits around closing time. He tries to pry information out of a reluctant Barton. She conceals coded messages in the high heels of her shoes and regularly sends an African-American private with them to a cobbler, Carl Flegler (I. Stanford Jolly), who serves as the go-between for an espionage ring. Naturally, since "Criminals Within" is a pre-World War II movie, the identity of the foreign government is never disclosed. The cobbler passes the shoes along to men in suits ensconced in another office on the premises.Meanwhile, Barton grows scared enough of Bryant that she has him murdered in the Recreation Hall. Carroll discovers Bryant's corpse in time to get away before Lieutenant Harmon shows up with security. Initially, Carroll throws Harmon off the trail by smashing a window and then taking refuge in the out-of-order phone booth again to mislead them. When he overhears the lieutenant phone Alma, Carroll slips out the window and heads to her apartment. Meantime, a sergeant who was a former newspaperman calls newspaperwoman Linda (Ann Doran of "Mr. Skeffington") and she gets on the case. Linda employs a loquacious African-American maid Mamie (Bernie Pilot) whose boyfriend is none other than Sam Dillingham (Dudley Dickerson of "Kentucky"), the canteen orderly. Clearly, the filmmakers ignored military customs since Sam never wears his cap. Anyway, Sam has been delivering Alma's secret messages without realizing it. Linda hustles over to Alma's apartment and Greg arrives not long after. She hides in the hallway and Greg discovers Alma has been murdered. About that time, fifth columnist Stanley Hume (Dennis Moore) arrives and demands to see Alma. Greg clobbers him, stashes him bound and gagged in a closet, and leaves dressed in his clothes. On the way out the door, Linda intercepts Greg. They team up and narrowly miss Lt. Harmon and his MPs heading for Alma's apartment.This low-budget espionage thriller appears to have been shot largely within the confines of a studio. Aside from the guard gate and the sign of the base, we never see anything remotely resembling the actual exteriors of a military installation. Since gas was rationed during the war, the filmmakers only intermittently show scenes involving vehicles in motion. One character sums up "Criminals Within" concisely with the line: "Oh, brother, this is worse than a movie melodrama." The best thing about this mystery is the identity of the traitor. "Criminals Within" qualifies as an efficient but unremarkable potboiler.

This early semi-noir – which was actually shelved for some two years! – from director Lewis (who would later deservedly acquire a cult reputation) is a thoroughly routine if convoluted programmer, albeit pacy and short enough to be tolerable nonetheless.Being a wartime production, of course, it involves secret formulas and foreign agents – while the young military hero is, for most of the duration, mistaken for both murderer and spy (actually, the eminent scientist killed in the opening moments is his brother). He's later joined by a female reporter in his effort to outwit the villains – who use a cobbler shop in the vicinity of a U.S. military base (already infiltrated by two members) to pass information to the enemy. For the record, the film includes some now politically incorrect footage involving colored persons employed in servile capacities (even if they get to take part in the climax naturally depicting the comeuppance of the spy ring); by the way, the wrap-up to the film is most abrupt!Though, as I said, Lewis would eventually become a force to be reckoned with in "Film Noir" (MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS [1945], GUN CRAZY [1950] and THE BIG COMBO [1955]), there's very little evidence of the style typically associated with the genre here. Incidentally, another early film of his I'd watched was the mildly entertaining Bela Lugosi vehicle INVISIBLE GHOST (1941); this, then, reminds me that I've recently acquired another popular 'B' horror effort which Lewis directed – namely THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET (1942), starring Lionel Atwill, and which I may get to sooner rather than later on the strength of this (being from the same era and all)