1951's "I Was an American Spy," the story of real life Filipina spy Claire Phillips, was adapted from her 1947 publication "Manila Espionage," depicting her activities as a Michigan-born widow conducting sabotage against occupying Japanese forces in the Philippines between 1942 and 1945. The release coincided with her receiving the prestigious Medal of Freedom that same year, although later scholars suggested that many of her accounts were 'without foundation' (she died of meningitis at age 52 in 1960). Regardless of any factual basis, it provides the 40 year old Dvorak (Cesca in the 1932 "Scarface") with the last great meaty role of her career, and a reminder of her own past as an ambulance driver for Britain's war effort (the real life Claire Phillips was delighted to have the legendary beauty cast in her shoes, and the two became good friends). We open with the announcement of Pearl Harbor's attack, Ann Dvorak as Claire with small daughter performing in a Manila night club while awaiting the return of her current paramour, American sergeant John Phillips (Douglas Kennedy). Once the Japanese invade the Philippines everyone heads for the hills, Claire catching up to John for a quickie marriage before he departs, later shot down before her eyes after the fall of Bataan, with Gene Evans as Corp. John Boone now looking after her. This steels the widow's resolve to return to her stomping grounds in Manila posing as a recently deceased Italian songbird, Richard Loo as Japanese Colonel Masamato quick to respond to her charms (it's never explicitly stated that Claire's establishment doubles as a brothel). The soppy, typical Hollywood beginning of a weeping Claire pining for her lover is by far the weakest section, but once she takes charge as secret agent 'High Pockets' it centers on her intriguing interactions with Loo's Colonel, granting her special privileges to travel and access to materials that can help the allied cause. Philip Ahn (KUNG FU's Master Kan) enters late as Captain Arito, delayed from an urgent mission by Claire's promised fan dance, American bombers sinking his vessel and tipping off the betrayed Colonel as to the identity of 'High Pockets.' Richard Loo was a longtime veteran dating back to Bela Lugosi's "Shadow of Chinatown" or Boris Karloff's "West of Shanghai," suitably concluding a lengthy career as Christopher Lee's wealthiest patron in 1974's "The Man with the Golden Gun." This film offers him a villainous Japanese with a bit more shading, acknowledging failure to achieve his own mission and genuinely admiring the pluck of his attractive female captive (even as Allied forces mow down his troops he cannot bring himself to shoot her, resigned to his fate with a final act of contrition).
Review of I Was an American Spy
