Mystery Sea Raider (1940)

Thanks for the memories!

Excellent but underrated film

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Henry Wilcoxon (Jimmy) owns a small ship – the Apache - but it's in a bit of a state and he hasn't any cargoes to carry. His girlfriend Carole Landis (June) strikes up a friendship with wealthy Onslow Stevens (Carl) who takes an interest in Wilcoxon's boat. He commissions it for a trip to South America, but on the way, an ulterior motive is revealed.This is a good film that cracks along and it has a good cast. All except Kathleen Howard (Maggie) who is dreadful and puts on an atrocious fake Scottish accent to make things worse. Thankfully, she disappears from the story early on. The majority of the story is set at sea on board a "mystery sea raider". This film deals with Nazis at sea and it is realistically done – the Germans are indeed very efficient.The quality of the film I saw wasn't great – recorded onto DVD from a video copy – but it was still an entertaining 73 minutes. Given her short life, I always take extra interest when a Carole Landis film shows up.

Who said the US was neutral before we got into the war? On the eve of the Second World War a ship captain named Madden is biding his time until the bank repossesses his ship. He is also waiting on the return of his girl, June, from Europe. While sailing home June makes the acquaintance of a German passenger, Carl Cutler. He tries to romance her but it doesn't go well, however they remain friends. War breaks out and Cutler radios the ships position to a submarine and it is sunk. Both June and Carl are rescued and arrive in New York, where she introduces the Madden to Carl who proposes fixing up his ship and getting it out of hock so they can make runs to South America. Unfortunately Carl's real plan is to use the ship as a sea raider to attack Germany's enemies.Nifty little (slightly Pre)wartime propaganda about the foul Germans using the US as a cover for their evil plans. I had never heard of this film until I ran across a copy for sale at a nostalgia show. The odd title and the briefest of plot descriptions was enough to pique my interest. Well made despite being aimed at the bottom of a double bill this is a film that draws you and and keeps you interested until the final fade out. While I know that its impossible for someone to be trumpeting or mentioning every film, I'm a little shocked that no one I know seems to have run across the film before except in a list of the films by the various stars of the film (Carol Landis, Henry Wilcoxon, Onslow Stevens, Monte Blue and others). This is a really good film and one of the few of late that really feels like a full evenings entertainment by itself. This is one to keep your eyes out for. I don't know if Turner Classics or Fox Movie Channel or even American Movie Classics has the right to run this but which ever does its something that really should be put back into circulation. (I'm planning on loaning this out to friends who like this sort of thing.) A solid 7.5 out of 10.

Mystery Sea Raider- 1940 A quite well made low budget programmer. The film is set just before WW2 starts in Europe. Several Nazi's, Onslow Stevens, Roland Varno and Willy Kaufman, hire the Captain, Henry Wilcoxon and crew of a rundown and harmless looking merchant ship. They tell Wilcoxon they need to deliver some cargo to South America. Of course the U.S. Captain and crew have no idea that it is really Nazis who have hired them.They set sail and several days later Germany attacks Poland. The Nazis pull out their guns and take over the ship. Of course the "cargo" turns out to be supplies for U-boats and raiders.They meet with several U-boats who refuel from the now Nazi controlled ship. The Nazis use the neutral American ship as perfect cover to fool any British warships.Needless to say the crew want to take the ship back. But how? I'm not telling! The rest of the cast includes the, "built like a brick s*******e" Carole Landis, Henry Victor, Kate Howard, Louis Aldon and Monte Blue.This is a very well put together little wartime thriller. It is an early film from future big time director, Edward Dmytryk. Dmytryk made several cracker-jack film noir including, MURDER, MY SWEET, THE SNIPER and CROSS-FIRE. He is best known though as the director of the Bogart film, THE CAINE MUTINY.