Absolutely Fantastic

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I Was An American Spy is a remarkable film for two reasons. First it's one of the few non-westerns that director Lesley Selander did in his career. Secondly I'm surprised that this story did not rate A picture treatment with a bigger name actress other than Ann Dvorak. Dvorak was on the downward slope of her career at this point.That being said Dvorak gives a wonderful performance as the saloon entertainer Claire Phillips who married a GI stationed in the Phillipines the day after Pearl Harbor. When her husband Douglas Kennedy is killed in action she not only survives among the Japanese, but builds an extensive spy network and helps prisoners with food and gives valuable intelligence for sabotage working closely with American and Filipino guerrillas. Her main contact is Gene Evans heading up all the guerrilla activity in the islands, a role similar to what John Wayne does in Back To Bataan. Remarkably when she was caught she was kept several months in prison and was found nearly starved to death according to the Wikipedia article on Claire Phillips. They kept her alive in the hopes she'd crack and give the Japanese information. The woman had the right stuff for sure, she never did. I doubt though her rescue was in real life quite as action filled as it is in this film.Notice should also be taken of Richard Loo once again playing a Japanese soldier, in this case a colonel she makes a monkey out of. Loo had a career of playing cruel Japanese soldiers during World War II. Loo is given a bit more depth in this film than normally.A nice B film that rated A picture treatment of a real American hero.

Does anyone have biographical information on Claire? Her birth name was Claire Snyder. Anything you have will help, such as birth date/place, parents, siblings, etc., as well as what happened to her after her book "I Was an American Spy" was published? In the 1950s, she was remarried, with the surname Clavier.I've found a speech by Senator Wayne Morse (he was an Oregon Republican who became an independent in 1952, then switched to the Democratic Party in 1955) about Claire Phillips Clavier (at a rough guess about 80% of the people with that surname are from Louisiana). I also found a studio synopsis of the movie. Based on that, Boone is John Peyton Boone (then a corporal).Claire's book "Manila Espionage" is out of print, and very difficult to find.

This is a good movie about a real life character. It has to be viewed in the context of the time. It was shortly after the war and the wounds left by the Japanese treatment of prisoners of war were still deeply felt. Some of the acting is a little over the top by today's standards. But, watch it, and try to imagine going through what these people (the allied POW's) went through. I enjoyed it. And I appreciate their sacrifice.

Based on a true story U.S. citizen Dvorak poses as a cabaret singer in Manila during WW2 to help combat a Japanese attack. Code name "High Pockets" she endures many dangers and severe punishment for the sake of her country in this tense spy story. Also impressive in the cast are Gene Evans, Douglas Kennedy and both Richard Loo and Philip Ahn performing their nasty Japanese soldier bits. However it's Dvorak who makes it all worth while. The veteran actress who excelled in such films as "Scarface" (1932), "Three on a Match" (1932), "G Men" (1935), "Our Very Own" (1950) etc. is outstanding as the American spy. Also featured in the film is the song "Because of You" which was a big hit for crooner Tony Bennett.