Enemy Agent

1940's "Enemy Agent" was one of the few non genre titles included in Universal's SHOCK! package of classic horror films issued to television in the late 50's. Despite that status, all remain quite obscure today, and it's no surprise that this routine espionage tale never appeared on Pittsburgh's CHILLER THEATER. Richard Cromwell (1930's "Tol'able David," 1933's "This Day and Age"), former early talkie heartthrob whose screen career was already winding down, stars as aircraft designer Jimmy Saunders, framed as a spy by fellow plant worker Lester Taylor (Vinton Hayworth), who is the actual culprit working for a duplicitous doctor (Philip Dorn). Second billed is forgotten actress Helen Vinson, also nearing the end of her acting career, as a waitress with a taste for the high life, leaving poor Jimmy in the capable hands of younger waitress Peggy O'Reilly (Marjorie Reynolds), who is secretly in love with him. The villains make their big mistake when they decide that Jimmy should be bumped off in another city, which allows the down-on-his-luck loser to turn the tables and clear himself. Not to be confused with the famous director Jack Arnold ("It Came from Outer Space," "Creature from the Black Lagoon," "The Incredible Shrinking Man"), Vinton Hayworth later became better known as General Schaefer on TV's I DREAM OF JEANNIE, with more familiar faces like third billed Robert Armstrong, Russell Hicks, Jack La Rue, Jack Carson, Milburn Stone, Robert E. Homans, Eddy C. Waller, Charles Williams, and James Craig.