Conrad Veidt plays twins – Hugo is the bad Nazi German diplomat in the USA who tracks down his kindly brother Otto, a book-store owner. Hugo wants Otto to use his shop as a front for Nazi activity and presents a convincing case as to why he should. However, there comes a point where Otto has to go against his kindly nature and take things into his own hands. The lives of Americans are threatened and he can put a stop to it.It's an interesting spy story that I would have scored more highly if it had a different ending. I felt dissatisfied. Why did the good guy make that decision? Great honour but complete idiocy. The film has a few other unrealistic moments, eg, the idea that the parrot talking could give the game away! Suspend belief and go along with things and the film entertains.What would you rather have – a glass of warm milk in the evening or a glass of brandy? I think I'm evil coz I'd go with the brandy. A final word goes to Bernadene Hayes who pops up as prostitute "Rosie". I've just watched "This Gun For Hire" (1942) where she pops up as "secretary" to an assassination victim. Both times, although her role is brief, she captures the attention. So, she gets a special mention.

I saw that there was a couple of Nazi films on TNT last night and decided to give them a viewing. Sometimes these old black and whites can really have interesting stories. This was true to my expectations.This was a Jules Dassin film. He was one of the most important directors in post-WWII America. Unfortunately he got caught up in the Red Scare led by Senator McCarthy and was blacklisted. he moved to Europe, where he continued to make movies.His most influential film was the heist movie Rififi, which inspired a genre of movies including Ocean's Eleven and Mission: Impossible.The movie stars Conrad Veidt, who is himself a very interesting character. Most movie goers would remember him as Gestapo Maj. Strasser in the classic Casablanca. This is interesting because he was a staunch anti-Nazi who was himself chased out of Germany under threat of assassination. He was to play Dracula in 1931, but Bela Lugosi got the job. His performance in The Man Who Laughs, was used as the basis for "The Joker" in the early Batman.Veidt give a good performance as a twin whose brother is a Nazi agent. he kills him and takes his place to fight against the Nazi underground in America.It is not a terribly exciting film, but it was suspenseful, and a chance to see one of the great American directors and a great German/British actor.

This is a minor motion picture. MGM has put together a fairly simple story of a good German-American who takes the place of his evil twin, who is the German Counsel and runs a spy ring. The good German (Conrad Veidt) worms his way into the nest of evildoers, exposes all of them, is betrayed by a pet canary, and allows himself to be taken back to Berlin for punishment in order to save his girl friend.If the plot sounds implausible, that's because it is. There are some solid supporting players (Ray Teal, Moroni Olsen, Marc Lawrence, Martin Kosleck) but Veidt is no one's idea of a romantic lover. Not with that pinched face and those thin lips that seem to have been painted dark, as if he were a madman who just stepped out of somebody's cabinet. He does the long-haired, bespectacled, pipe-smoking good twin adequately, but his evil twin seems much more natural.Anne Ayars speaks in a way that seems to have been endemic to women in the 1940s. There has definitely been a change in women's supersegmentals. Contemporary women are rapidly losing their vowels, so that "sure" becomes "shr", which is actually Chinese.I've kind of made fun of the movie but I enjoyed it. It's in black and white, the score is no more than functional, and Jules Dassin has directed unpretentiously. It's not gripping so much as reassuring somehow. It's nice to contemplate a movie made during a time before movies became "films", before there were movie critics (except James Agee, who was a Franciscan fool), before movies could be entertaining without being blockbusters and costing a zillion dollars. When you watch this, you can almost smell popcorn.

I saw this movie as a teen (they used to show it on T.V.) a lot and always loved it. Conrad Veidt plays twins - good versus evil. I taped it last year (2002)from Turner Classic Movies (after calling them and asking them to play it). It's still a wonderful movie. Conrad Veidt is a Nazi you love to hate. (Casablanca, Escape, A Woman's Face, All Through the Night) Playing twins, you see the angst in the good brother (Otto Becker) knowing his twin (Herr Baron) is a Nazi trying to destroy the U.S. - precisely why Otto left Germany. Herr Baron seeks out his brother in N.Y. to use his bookstore as part of his Nazi operation. Of course, Otto refuses to no avail and winds up a powerless pawn. He lives above the store under constant surveillance. One night, Herr Baron gets lonely and pays Otto a visit alone. An argument/struggle ensues, and Otto kills the Baron. Thinking fast, he decides the only way out is to impersonate his brother to save our country. He manages to fool everyone, except for the Baron's man-servant Fritz who came over with him. Otto's cover is blown when he emerges from the shower and Fritz spots a tell tale scar on his back. When Otto emerges in a bathrobe, Fritz has a glass of warm milk waiting for him, as in the old days. Otto's fears are unnecessary as Fritz' loyalty to him is undying.Otto succeeds in foiling all Herr Baron's plans but subsequently pays the price when he has to give himself up in order to save someone's life. Watch his face when he is being deported back to Germany and he passes the Statue of Liberty. The pain and tears he fights back are real.