The Dawn Express

The Dawn Express

27/3/1942 1h 2m 3.7/10

Overview

A Nazi spy ring is after a chemical formula that increases the power of ordinary gasoline for U.S. Army aviation use. Two U.S. chemical companies are developing the formula, with each working on half for security purposes. The spies get half the formula and know that either of two chemists, Robert Norton or Tom Fielding, knows the rest. They capture Fielding, through a ruse by gang member Linda Pavlo, and threaten the life of his sister Nancy and his mother if he does not give them the formula. To protect his friend Fielding, who does know the formula and is engaged to Nancy, Tom pretends to know the secret and boards the Dawn Express plane with the spy leader and his gang.

Director

Albert Herman

Top Billed Cast

William Bakewell

William Bakewell

Tom Fielding

Michael Whalen

Michael Whalen

Robert Norton

Jack Mulhall

Jack Mulhall

Chief Agent James Curtis

Anne Nagel

Anne Nagel

Nancy Fielding

Constance Worth

Constance Worth

Linda Pavlo

Hans Heinrich von Twardowski

Hans Heinrich von Twardowski

Capt. Gemmler

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

6/26/2022

4/10

Ok, so this wartime crime drama wasn't so much edited together as crocheted. The gaps between scenes, the pauses for cues, the telephone conversations by numbers don't help the pace, such as it is, at all. Many of the scenes take place in a tavern where I only hope Strauss was receiving royalty payments, All in all it's a pretty hopeless affair with a really dreary score. The premiss is that some Nazi spies are trying to steal a top secret fuel-enhancing formula and so they try to kidnap/bribe/extort the American scientists working on it to deliver the goods - but these plucky boffins are not just going to capitulate! Can they thwart the dastardly plan? Hans von Twardowski is hilarious (intentionally?) and Constance Worth as the femme fatale "Pavlo" is about as wooden as the chair she so often sits in. To it's credit, the ending is not quite what you expect, but sadly this is little better than a mediocre C-feature that need never see the light of day again.

Similar Movies

Schindler's List

8.6

Schindler's List

1993

The Blues Brothers

7.7

The Blues Brothers

1980

Live and Let Die

6.5

Live and Let Die

1973

Rome, Open City

8.0

Rome, Open City

1945

Trap of Suicide Kilometer

0.0

Trap of Suicide Kilometer

1964

Fury in Marrakesh

5.0

Fury in Marrakesh

1966

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

7.0

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

1971

North by Northwest

8.0

North by Northwest

1959

The Good German

5.8

The Good German

2006

Who Are You, Mr. Sorge?

6.9

Who Are You, Mr. Sorge?

1961

The Spy with My Face

5.5

The Spy with My Face

1965

How to Steal the World

5.0

How to Steal the World

1968