Martin Kosleck est known or recognized by movie fans as the red-herring windmill resident replacement in Alfred Hitchcock's classic, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, and unlike that memorable, sparse yet important cameo, he's pretty much the entire vehicle for this particular CORRESPONDENT made two years later, only now we're on his home turf during, not before, The Second World War: BERLIN, Germany against American Dana Andrews, with a pencil thin mustache usually given to Silent Movie villains, playing the most intrepid role by mere introduction... A New York broadcast telling America the names of all overseas Correspondents, ranging from men working in England to Holland, which sound like soft jobs as opposed to where Dana's Bill Roberts works, reading what seems like German-written propaganda about their side of things, but with secret coded adjectives, he gets through to his newspaper back home, and, despite acting permanently teflon, like some kind of one-dimensional comic book hero (not one of Andrews' best roles), with the severity of his job, the attitude fits: especially in a feel-good wartime programmer.She doesn't know anything, and stuck in a cold, heartless romance with intense Nazi Captain von Rau, played by Martin Kosleck, she's actually in the most danger since he's the scariest character. But like all good actors, there's a vulnerable side that sheds wan light through an otherwise steely countenance. With his severe looks, though, it's not easy to pull off being all that friendly.Kosleck, who'd play sinister Germans throughout his career, owns the picture for more than his narrowed-eyes wielding an intense, soulless reflection of The Furor's agenda. While Andrews' story revs up, taking verbal shots at The Third Reich in an obvious attempt to make Hitler seem like the type of clown Charlie Chaplin portrayed in THE GREAT DICTATOR, the sole heavy, by standing firm and playing the role with unbridled fervor while still remaining alert and controlled, is the centerpiece - even as Andrews eventually becomes a more physical hero, and gets deeper into trouble - from a last minute race-against-time attempt to save his girl involving a psycho ward and then his own hopeful prison escape - our edgy German spotlight is the reason that anyone fears anything at all: In short, Kosleck has the job of embodying the entire Nazi Party.

"Berlin Correspondent" is set just before the United States entered World War II. Bill Roberts (Dana Andrews) is an American news correspondent and it's pretty obvious he hates Nazi Germany, which is where he's been stationed. The Nazis heavily censor his news broadcasts...yet somehow information about the Nazis seems to sneak out...and they suspect Bill is up to something. Eventually they learn his secret but instead of just being tossed out of the country, the Nazis have other plans for him.Despite having Dana Andrews in the picture, this is a pretty unremarkable film. The Nazis are almost all stupid as well as evil...and Bill is able to trick them again and again because of this. If only the Nazis were this dumb! Overall, a decent time- passer but not much more. And, by the way, oddly the Germans almost all sound just like Americans!

BERLIN CORRESPONDENT 1942This a 20th Century Fox film is another of the wartime flag wavers that flooded the theatres during World War Two. This stars, Dana Andrews, Virginia Gilmore, Mona Maris, Erwin Kaiser, Martin Kosleck, Sig Ruman and Henry Rowland.It starts in November 1941, Andrews, an American radio correspondent, sends out valuable espionage information during his daily broadcasts from Berlin. This is annoying the Nazi types to no end. They want to know where he is getting this info and plug the leak. Gestapo colonel Martin Kosleck (in another of his great Nazi roles) assigns his best agents to follow the man. Andrews though always manages to give the slip to his shadows. He then meets with his German contact for the German intelligence information. Kosleck has finally reached the end of his tether with Andrews evading his tails. He assigns his girlfriend, Virginia Gilmore to keep tabs of the American. This she does rather quickly by posing as a woman in distress. Andrews, being ever so gallant, helps Gilmore cover a café bill. The smooth talking Yank soon has a date lined up with the pretty Gilmore. Of course the man has no idea this is all a plan laid out by Gestapo man, Kosleck. Now the plot thickens as Andrews' underground contact turns out to be Miss Gilmore's father. The man, Erwin Kaiser, hates the Nazis and wants to help in their defeat. The info he gathers is from Gilmore who thinks it is all just table talk she got from boyfriend Kosleck.Anyways, after a couple of dates with Andrews, Gilmore discovers that the information he receives is written in invisible ink on stamps. He buys these from a local shop where Kaiser happens to frequent. The Nazis raid the place and soon are pounding on Kaiser's and daughter Gilmore's door. Gilmore now realizes that she has inadvertently turned her father in. She now only wants to help her father.As the Gestapo burst in, Kaiser starts yelling at Gilmore calling her a cow for turning him in. This causes Kosleck and the Gestapo swine to believe that Gilmore is still a loyal Nazi. (Seen this plot twist at least a dozen times in various films)Kosleck soon has Kaiser in a cell receiving some "gentle" questioning. Kaiser refuses to talk and is soon set to an insane sanatorium. There he will of course be found dead of some accident or some such thing. Gilmore, at wits end, seeks out Andrews to help save her father. Now there is a whole series of somewhat over the top heroics by Andrews. He dresses up like a German officer and visits the sanatorium. He needless to say soon springs the old man and smuggles him over the border for some time with the Swiss. Matters take a turn for the worse for Andrews as December 7th has rolled around. Germany stands with her Japanese ally and Andrews is grabbed up and tossed into a concentration camp. There are some more bits of daring do and the likes before Andrews and Gilmore are winging it out of the country in a stolen aircraft. This is a typical early war propaganda flag waver with the dashing hero getting away from the enemy. (this time with a girl) With only a 70 minute runtime it moves along quickly enough. The German's being played as complete morons in every film of this type is starting to get a bit long in the tooth. One starts to wonder how they ever took over all of Europe. It is still worth a look as a decent example of the genre.The film was directed by regular Charlie Chan helmsman, Eugene Forde. One time Oscar nominated, Virgil Miller is the director of photography.Some will recall Sig Ruman from his role in STALAG 17 as the German guard, Sgt Schulz.

**SPOILERS** It's late November 1941 and things haven't been going too well for the Nazis as of late. Their big offensives in both Russia and North Africa have stalled and Berlin is being bombed by what looks like German Stuka dive-bombers who must have gone some 500 miles off course from the Eastern Front to do it. American newspaper correspondent Bill Roberts, Dana Andrews,is giving his usual nightly news report from Berlin back to the USA, which has been heavily censored by the Gestapo,that somehow is telling his people back home whats really happening in the war. Bill is using coded words that the Gestapo can't pick up to give the info that the Gestapo want to prevent the world from knowing. Just where is Bill getting this very vital and secret information?Col. Karl Von Rau, Martin Kosleck, a top honcho in the German intelligence Service is having fits about this matter and is sending out agents to spy on Bill to find out who's giving him this top secret data. The agents that Von Rau sends out are about as effective as a water pistol is to stopping a five alarm fire. Getting his pretty intelligence analyst Karen Hauen, Virginia Gilmore, on Bill's tail she gets him off his guard, with Bill trying to impress her with his famous spaghetti sauce, at his hotel room. Karen finds out that Bill gets the important info from a stamp dealer in the city. It later turns out that this person is not a stamp dealer but a customer who also happens to be Karen's father Rudolph Hauen, Erwin Kaiser. Rudolf had just about had it with the Nazi regime and wants to do everything in his power to undermine it. With his daughter now working for German Intellengence Rudolf in the perfect spot to get top secret information about the German Armys victories and defeats and used that information to feed it to Bill Roberts and thus to the free world. But what the old geezer didn't realize is that he was putting himself and, even worse, his daughter Karen in mortal danger. Getting arrested by the Gestapo and thrown into the Grundorf Asylum, where the only way that one can come out of is in a wooden box, Karen franticly goes to Bill Roberts, who she just informed on, for help. Typical WWII propaganda movie with the American reporter having the beautiful German Fraulein fall heads over heels for him and help him not only escape from the hated Nazis but also go along with him. The "handsome" and "dashing" Col. Von Rau is done in by his private secretary Carla, Mona Maris, who feels that he's two timing her by him planning to marry Karen! This caused the outraged Clara to turn him over to the Gestapo for special treatment. Lover-boy Von Rau tries to play both women to his advantage but gets burned when his diabolical plan to have Karen's lover Bill Roberts, who earlier helped her father escape Nazi Germany, escape only to have him killed and his death covered up by electrocuting him on the camps barb wire. Von Rau is stymied when Bill knocks out the Nazi guard who was to pull the lever and thus Von Rau is arrested and eventually shot for being responsible for Bill's escape. Commindeering a plane Bill & Karen take off for natural Switzerland and then finding to their surprise that the planes Nazi pilot, Henry Rowland, joined in with them in their escape. What surprised me even more was that there wasn't a single German combat plane, not to mention the very effective German army anti-aircraft artillery, from the vaunted and powerful Luftwaffe around to stop them.