This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The copy of the film that I had was poor quality with an excess amount of contrast and vertical lines off and on throughout the film. I purchased it because I like the genre, Neil Hamilton, and have a look at Doris Day in 1941. I didn't even recognize her! The basic plot was Federal Agent James Madison (Neil Hamilton) trying to arrest Otto Libermann aka Haskel(Victor Varconi) for a plane crash he was responsible for. Chuck (Lyle Littel is just the right amount of comedic relief for the picture.Music doesn't fit some of the scenes which leads me to believe that they tried to use source tracks without success. If I had a copy of better quality I might raise my rating from 3-5. Otherwise pass and watch some better 'B' movies.

Federal Fugitive starts out with an interesting plot premise, Neil Hamilton from Army Intelligence recognizing through a disguise a wanted fugitive who was supposed to have been killed in a plane crash. Victor Varconi is of course up to no good.In his current guise Varconi is trying to buy into an airplane factory which is now making parts from plastic. Some foreign soon to be enemies would like to get their hands on that. Hamilton goes undercover as the factory owner's partner from California who none of them have seen.Still Varconi is suspicious and he gets his partner to get girl Friday Doris Day to charm some information out of Hamilton. Failing that Varconi tries to poison Hamilton.Doris's switching of sides was a little too convenient and terribly unconvincing. Add to that the general shoddiness of a PRC film and this falls on the red side of the ledger.And this is not THE Doris Day who would make her film debut seven years later. So if you were expecting a song, all I can say is Que Sera Sera.

This DVD starts out with two big strikes against it--the film was made by PRC (one of the cheapest and worst of the so-called "poverty row studios"--due to their low budgets and very limited resources) and it was released on DVD by Alpha Video. The problem with Alpha is that their films are never restored in any way and often have simply dreadful prints--and this one is no exception. Especially towards the beginning, the film is practically unwatchable as chunks of the film appear to be missing (due to very choppy edits) and much of the film has many white lines running across the picture. It's really, really ugly. Fortunately, the sound is pretty good, as Alpha never inserts captioning of any sort (making some of their films almost impossible to hear properly).This is a modest-budgeted film featuring Neil Hamilton. Audiences today might recognize him as Commissioner Gordon from the Adam West "Batman" show, though in the 1920s and 30s, he was a top star. However, by the early 40s, his career was in a severe decline and this explains why he's with PRC--after having done films for such prestigious studios as MGM and Paramount. Despite now being middle-aged and not as handsome as he'd been, Hamilton was a very good actor and had an absolutely lovely voice. It does seem unusual to see him playing a government agent, but otherwise he's good in this role.The film begins with Hamilton leaving for another city on a lead. Oddly, his comic relief friend (a cabbie) comes along with him and is important in his efforts to find a wanted man. It seems this guy was responsible for a plane crash that killed several people and once again he's involved in some sort of scam concerning airplanes. While Hamilton is able to identify the crook quite quickly, he decides to keep an eye on him to see what sort of underhanded business he's involved with this time. What he doesn't know is that the criminal gang also has figured out his identity as well! Can Hamilton uncover the truth or will the clever criminals get rid of this straight-shooting and dedicated g-man? Tune in to this brisk little crime film to see.Considering that this film had very modest pretenses and was simply meant as a second feature, it isn't bad at all--especially since it was made by PRC! Frankly, I expected worse but it was competent, had a few exciting moments and was reasonably interesting--though far from a must-see. For fans of Bs (like myself), it's well worth seeing--for everyone else, it's a toss-up whether you should see it or not.

War time crime B movie. Indigestion pill popping federal man Hamilton figures "We're dealing with foreign agents" and goes undercover as a rep. for the company that manufactures plastic planes. The bad hats send in the quite appealing Day to vamp him ("Touching goodbye... Bette Davis couldn't have done it any better") but she, naturally, falls for his mature charms, foiling the subversive plot.Drab & talk bound, with back projection, no roof, wall papered sets and an over age cast in suits, to set the tone but it's moved along by then first half specialist Beaudine, who briskly manipulates the formula elements. Having a couple of one-time silent movie leads along helps too - Hamilton, a Griffith star and Varconi from the De Milles, no less! Watching FEDERAL FUGITIVES, sixty years after it's intended audience, is to be reminded that production line entertainment can catch the look and mood of its time and retain interest. Will people be saying that about LAW & ORDER: WESTWOOD?