In Japan journalist Nick Condon runs an American paper. He is forever at odds with the state police for reporting news they don't want to be told. When one of his colleagues stumbles into a story before being killed while trying to leave the country Nick tries to track down the killers and the documents that his friend died to protect. He begins to uncover a plot to attack the US.
This bit of propaganda is a standard Cagney thriller at heart. The setting is basically to show Japanese in a bad light and to show how America needs to make the right (but difficult) decisions in order to overcome the `yellow threat'. The `true story' does this but it is also a reasonable thriller. The story moves with a reasonable pace but it does drag at times when it stoops to make the bad guys look morally wrong and make their culture look brutal and un-American.
The story makes space for a love story between Nick and the supposedly mixed-race Iris. This doesn't work at all and it feels like it was crammed into the original script. Add to this the fact that the film tries to stick in as many scenes as it can where the Japanese are made to look in a bad light. Cagney is good as always and adds martial arts to his tough guy act (so what if it clearly isn't him at times). Sidney is wasted in a role that goes from spy to blithering woman in less than 30 minutes. The rest of the cast are either good Americans or bad Japanese.
Overall this is a average Cagney thriller. The romance sub-plot doesn't work and the anti-Japanese theme is a little unpleasant. Has it's moments but the weaknesses take quite a bit away from it.
This bit of propaganda is a standard Cagney thriller at heart. The setting is basically to show Japanese in a bad light and to show how America needs to make the right (but difficult) decisions in order to overcome the `yellow threat'. The `true story' does this but it is also a reasonable thriller. The story moves with a reasonable pace but it does drag at times when it stoops to make the bad guys look morally wrong and make their culture look brutal and un-American.
The story makes space for a love story between Nick and the supposedly mixed-race Iris. This doesn't work at all and it feels like it was crammed into the original script. Add to this the fact that the film tries to stick in as many scenes as it can where the Japanese are made to look in a bad light. Cagney is good as always and adds martial arts to his tough guy act (so what if it clearly isn't him at times). Sidney is wasted in a role that goes from spy to blithering woman in less than 30 minutes. The rest of the cast are either good Americans or bad Japanese.
Overall this is a average Cagney thriller. The romance sub-plot doesn't work and the anti-Japanese theme is a little unpleasant. Has it's moments but the weaknesses take quite a bit away from it.