If you want to know about Guantanamo and the precedent for all those enemy alien combatants being kept there, a viewing of They Came To Blow Up America is in order. Given the title and when it came out I found it to be more restrained in the flag waving than I thought.
Not to say it doesn't have its problems and a more factual basis in the story might be in order if the tale is ever retold. They Came To Blow Up America finds George Sanders returning home from South America to New York, specifically the Yorkville area in Manhattan where German Americans predominated back in the day and where in some quarters the German American Bund was popular.
Not in his household though, his parents Ludwig Stossel and Elsa Janssen are heartbroken over George going to the Nazis. In fact Ludwig takes to bed physically ill over it. Ludwig Stossel and Elsa Janssen the year before played Lou Gehrig's parents in Pride of the Yankees.
Of course the Nazis recruit Sanders and he goes off to Nazi Germany in secret to their spy/saboteur school run by the Gestapo. Note the similarities of those training scenes to scenes later in our films about the OSS in 13 Rue Madeline, Cloak and Dagger, and OSS.
But fear not Ludwig and Elsa, turns out this is all one big ruse by the FBI, George is working with them to sabotage the saboteurs and FBI agent Ward Bond is his handler in today's terms. Of course when Bond like a dope tells Stossel feeling sorry for the old gent, he nearly blows up their plans.
It wasn't as bad a bit of flag waving as I thought it would be and the story does have a factual basis. Still everyone involved has done better work.
After all Ward Bond did star in Hitler, Dead or Alive. Go screen that one before you criticize They Came To Blow Up America.
Not to say it doesn't have its problems and a more factual basis in the story might be in order if the tale is ever retold. They Came To Blow Up America finds George Sanders returning home from South America to New York, specifically the Yorkville area in Manhattan where German Americans predominated back in the day and where in some quarters the German American Bund was popular.
Not in his household though, his parents Ludwig Stossel and Elsa Janssen are heartbroken over George going to the Nazis. In fact Ludwig takes to bed physically ill over it. Ludwig Stossel and Elsa Janssen the year before played Lou Gehrig's parents in Pride of the Yankees.
Of course the Nazis recruit Sanders and he goes off to Nazi Germany in secret to their spy/saboteur school run by the Gestapo. Note the similarities of those training scenes to scenes later in our films about the OSS in 13 Rue Madeline, Cloak and Dagger, and OSS.
But fear not Ludwig and Elsa, turns out this is all one big ruse by the FBI, George is working with them to sabotage the saboteurs and FBI agent Ward Bond is his handler in today's terms. Of course when Bond like a dope tells Stossel feeling sorry for the old gent, he nearly blows up their plans.
It wasn't as bad a bit of flag waving as I thought it would be and the story does have a factual basis. Still everyone involved has done better work.
After all Ward Bond did star in Hitler, Dead or Alive. Go screen that one before you criticize They Came To Blow Up America.