This is another quickie churned out just after the US entry into the war, and like the previous movie, Submarine Alert, it dwells on the perils of espionage. In this American scientist's are developing a two part fuel additive that doubles the power in gasoline, the evil Nazi's are trying to get it. As the film opens a famous German chemist has acquired the first half and they are now targeting the other half, but government agents are on the case! The Nazi's target two chemist's at the plant where the second half of the formula is being developed, Robert is a straight arrow with no family, so the German's put him to one side. Tom is more promising, something of a playboy and lives with his mother and sister, who also works at the plant and has a thing for Robert. The Feds visit the plant and decide Robert and Tom are the most in danger and learn the formula is highly unstable and likely to explode if not handled carefully. So we let the Nazi's have the formula, win the war in 1943 because half the panzer's and stuka's blow up when they refuel! Nope we don't do anything logical like that or take the two guys into protective custody, the Feds decide to watch them and hope for the best. Enter Frau Honey trap who invites Tom to a date at a Bavarian style tavern where all the employee's and half the customers are Nazi's. Part way thru dinner Tom is called to the office to answer the phone, but its the head Nazi with a offer he can't refuse. Poor Tom doesn't even get lucky before he gets strong armed, Nazi's are mean! With his sister and mother threatened, he agree's to work for the spies, meanwhile his fed minder is killed by a fake blind man. The next day Robert is called to meet with the head fed and the plant manager. Since Tom's minder is found dead they figure he has been turned and ask Robert to keep a eye on him. Tom's sister as a good American listens in and learns her brother is in trouble. Robert confronts Tom who deny's it at first, but then admits it, of course they don't go to the fed's. Robert goes to the Nazi tavern and meets the 'blind' assassin out front and drops a coin into his tin cup. The assassin wishes him a reward of a 100,000 dollars, keep this in mind it will be on the quiz. Inside he meets Frau Honey trap and tells her Tom told him about the place and might be interested in a deal. Frau Honey trap take him to the head Nazi who offers him a 100k for the formula. See I told you it was important! He promises to come back soon with his answer. Of course Robert doesn't go to the feds but returns to the tavern and is ready to make a 'deal', but soon Tom shows up and tells the spies its a trap, but he has a sample and will give it to them if they spare Robert. So they knock out Robert and head to the airfield to meet the famous German scientist on the 'Dawn Express' (though it seems to be afternoon) with the other half of the formula and make the exchange. Most of the Nazi's and Tom hop into a car and roar off to the airfield. Tom's sister seems to have followed Tom and revives Robert, then the feds arrive (following the sister?) to arrest Frau Honey trap, a minor flunky, learn about the meet at the airfield and roar off after the spies, soon followed by Robert and the sister in another car. The spies reach the airfield and jump on board a cheap looking DC-3 and take off. They decide to test the sample and Tom being a true American patriot mixes the formula wrong blowing up the plane with all the spies aboard along with himself and the movie ends. The story has huge obvious plot holes and the 'German's' are often over the top and serve their lines with a side of ham. The rest of the actors are pretty much average, though I think the film makers had some experience in horror of film-noir as they used long and half shadows effectively when filming the Nazi lair. My print on dvd was pretty bad and missing a few frames and jumped pretty often, but at well under a hour it at least moved fast, but that might be because of so many plot holes.
