Don't Talk

Don't Talk

28/2/1942 0h 22m 5.9/10

Overview

This Crime Does Not Pay series entry dramatizes the idea that during wartime, people should not discuss anything related to their work when in public. A casual remark can be overheard by an enemy agent and used to sabotage the war effort. In this short, the story involves shipments of parts to a defense plant.

Director

Joseph M. Newman

Top Billed Cast

Barry Nelson

Barry Nelson

FBI Agent Freed

Gloria Holden

Gloria Holden

Beulah Anderson aka Beulah Binvicko

Dwight Frye

Dwight Frye

Ziggy (uncredited)

Mark Daniels

Mark Daniels

MGM Crime Reporter (uncredited)

Donald Douglas

Donald Douglas

FBI Agent Jack Sampson

Harry Worth

Harry Worth

Otto aka Anatole

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

7/27/2025

6/10

We ought to know by now, that “Crime Does Not Pay” but just in case we had forgotten, this one combines with “Dangerous Talk Costs Lives” to warn us of the dangers of idle chatting in wartime. An explosion at a factory causes the FBI to suspect that some fifth columnist saboteurs are up to no good, but how on earth did they know of this precious shipment? The workforce are all entirely trustworthy and adamant that they have ever said a word to anyone. These are smart cookies, these Hoover boys, and so swiftly look for what these men have in common. The café across the street, and a waitress who once visited the Aya Sofia in Istanbul. Is she gleaning the odd snippet of conversation and putting two and two together? We know all along who is pulling whose strings and given the nature of the series, we know that the Feds will get their man, but it’s nonetheless one of the more action-packed and sinister of these twenty minute features and I kept expecting Basil Rathbone to emerge from somewhere too.

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