Secret Command (1944)

This B movie action drama featuring home-front espionage intrigue during World War II received an Academy Award nomination for Special Effects. Directed by Edward Sutherland with a screenplay by Roy Chanslor that was based on a story by John and Ward Hawkins it stars Pat O’Brien as Sam Gallagher who’s returned home to see his brother Jeff (Chester Morris) and get a job working at shipyard. After witnessing Sam’s backing down from a fight with a tough coworker Red Kelly (Barton MacLane) Jeff becomes suspicious of his brother a suspicion that’s shared by Sam’s former girlfriend Lea Damaron (Ruth Warrick). Lea had been Sam’s girl so she’s surprised to learn that he’s now married to Jill (Carole Landis) and has two children! Of course the truth is that Sam and Jill work for a U.S. government spy agency they aren’t married and the kids are actually orphan refugees from the war in Europe. Sam’s been sent by the Navy to infiltrate the docks where an act of sabotage is suspected to be planned by German spies among the workers. In fact Brownell (Tom Tully) is the anonymous ringleader among the men. Helping Sam on the inside is Miller (Wallace Ford) who’s infiltrated the German group and learns a little too late that its leader is Brownell aka Colonel Von Browning.