Extras podcast posted dedicated to the release of
Confessions Of A Nazi Spy, featuring George Feltenstein and Jeff Briggs, also from WB, here's a summary:
Confessions Of A Nazi Spy is an incredibly important film for Warner’s history and film history in general.
WB was one of the few studios to call out Nazi Germany from the beginning – many others didn’t follow their lead until they had to (M-G-M stayed in Germany until the U.S. declared war 1941).
Jack L. Warner was a major proponent of the US and the war effort (George says he’s not the first person that comes to mind when it comes to integrity, but one of the things he was unshakable on was the need to produce films like this).
There were genuine threats against the film (some may have been staged for publicity purposes, but there were real threats).
There was a German consul in Los Angeles who was intimidating most of the studios into staying quiet on Germany (George says he’s seen pictures of him and he looks like your “classic Hollywood evil Nazi, terrifying looking person. Like Colonel Klink but not funny”. (upon a Google search, picture attached
here for reference). That guy would read scripts and let the Production Code know what they objected to and get them to remove it.
Reviewers and audiences responded so well, there was no chance for the German consul to stop it, but he tried.
Most of the cast and crew were refugees from Germany – director Anatole Litvak was born in Russia, worked for UFA in the 1930s, and fled to the US in the 1930s. Francis Lederer was from Czechoslovakia (had to Google that), but he fled from there to London to the U.S., and never went back even after the war, and lived until he was 100 in 2000 (George also talks how he was one of the first people interviewed for WB’s archival interview project – so if you see him in footage from 1995 talking about this film, it’s from those interviews).
Was one of the first 150 films WAC released on DVD, this Blu-ray is from a new 4K OCN scan, audio restored. Looks better than George as ever seen it – this hadn’t been remastered for the DVD release so it wasn’t remastered in over 25 years. At the end of the film, there was newsreel footage added to the film for reissue that shows the Nazis invading Europe, so that’s there. The credits are at the end of the film, which is common today, but unheard of back then.
Talks about
Watch On The Rhine (1943) and how Paul Lukas, who plays the villain in this film, won a Best Actor Oscar for being the hero in that film (no mention made if this is on the release slate)
Marlene Dietrich was asked to be in this film, and while she was supportive of it, she turned it down for fear of reprisals. Anna Sten was asked too but turned it down for the same reason.
Edward G. Robinson agreed to star in this film as he agreed with this film’s message, he was by far the biggest star in this film – George Sanders was only just becoming known, most everyone else was more low profile. Grace Stafford appears in this film as well – she later married Walter Lantz and became the voice of Woody Woodpecker.
The script was only approved by the MPPA because it was based on true events – it likely wouldn’t have been approved otherwise.
WB had exited the German market before the film came out, so they felt they had nothing to lose by making this.
George talks about the Technicolor “History” shorts, and like
mentioned above, he mentions the Oscar winning short
Sons Of Liberty (1939) is being remastered from the nitrate OCNs.
George talks about 1939 and film – the apex of the pre-war studio system.
Talks about other studios finally going in with the war effort, M-G-M with
The Mortal Storm in 1940 (out on Blu-ray already from WAC).
Confessions Of A Nazi Spy was a financial success, not the biggest one, but a success.
Security had to be hired for the theatres, but not many incidents happened.
Very unusual film, no producer was credited for it and Max Steiner was not credited for his work on the film as well for fear of reprisals.
George talks about the importance of history and film – part of WAC’s mission to get these out there – recalls talking with someone about a movie on the Civil War made in WWII that the other person felt reflected the 1940s more than the era the film was supposed to be set in.
The 1940 Technicolor short Meet The Fleet will be included as an extra from an HD transfer, starring Bill Orr, who later became Warner’s son in law and head of their TV department, greenlighting Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, and many other classic WB shows of the period.
A making of short will be included in the extras for
Confessions Of A Nazi Spy, and some text based extras as well for context on this film.
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