Confessions of a Nazi Spy

Confessions of a Nazi Spy is a 1939 American spy political thriller film directed by Anatole Litvak for Warner Bros. It was the first explicitly anti-Nazi film to be produced by a major Hollywood studio, being released in May 1939, four months before the beginning of World War II and two and a half years before the United States' entry into the war. The film stars Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, George Sanders, Paul Lukas, and a large cast of German actors, including some who had emigrated from their country after the rise of Adolf Hitler. Many of the German actors who appeared in the film changed their names for fear of reprisals against relatives still living in Germany. The film's story is based on a series of articles by FBI officer Leon G. Turrou, recounting his investigation of Nazi spy rings in the United States. Parts of the film are drawn from the Rumrich Nazi spy case, the first major international espionage case in American history. Plot A silhouetted narrator connects the film to recent events, beginning in a quiet corner of Scotland in 1937. A postman delivers letters from all over the world to a Mrs. MacLaughlin, who forwards the contents of one envelope to Dr. Karl Kassel in New York City. Later, Kassel harangues an audience of German-Americans at the Café Nuremberg. Most are wearing the uniform of the German American Bund. He tells them that the Führer has declared war on the evils of democracy and that, as Germans, they should carry out his wishes and claim power. The crowd salutes, "Sieg Heil!"