Great Film overall

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.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Other reviewers have covered the main points of this confused "comedy"/spy-mystery film very well. I would like to point out the particular insult to women and to the intelligence of both sexes in the Rosalind Russell role. It sapped the mystery of any believability--what War Department is the plaything of the daughter of its assistant secretary?? What woman could wander around in such self-centered oblivion to a war-time effort? William Powell is remarkable in his ability to carry off his role as her--huh?--husband-to-be. I mean, NOTHING bothers him. I am not so unflappable--Russell's character kept my teeth on edge throughout. Grrr. Why did I watch this chestnut? To see the beautiful Cesar Romero--that was the payoff. And the rip-off. In this movie the old saying is true: "The good die young." Virtually with the mention of his "mama" on his lips.

I was going to give Rosalind Russell a thorough going over for her ridiculously heavy-handed performance in this espionage comedy-drama, but I see that the role was actually designed for Myrna Loy and that Russell was assigned at the very last moment when Loy went on strike. Anyway, Roz manages to throw the film way off balance. Incompetent direction doesn't help either, though once again, it's only Russell's scenes (of which there are many) that are incompetently handled. At some stage Sam Wood was brought into the film, but if he handled any of Russell's scenes he obviously had no more success in inducing her to tone down and stop trying to steal the movie from Powell. As for Powell, he doesn't bother to compete with Russell's aggressive scene-stealing. The rest of the movie is pretty suspenseful with some good performances from Binnie Barnes and Samuel S. Hinds. Production values are extremely lavish, even by MGM's over-the-top standards.

I enjoyed this movie - it wasn't a classic, but it was definitely a cut above the norm. The fascinating part was, in my opinion, seeing Rosalind Russell in a "Myrna Loy" role! It was like watching one of the Thin Man movies - seeing her interact with William Powell, speaking lines like Nora Charles, and even looking very much like Myrna Loy.

Meddlesome Rosalind Russell is positively grating in her first star billing, continually disrupting the flow of the plot and detracting from my enjoyment of the action. What idiot would spike the coffee of the chief cryptographer with sleeping pills in the midst of his trying to decode a secret enemy message with the lives of thousands of American troops hanging in the balance? "I was just trying to get you to get some sleep," was her meek response after the damage was done. And she continually does things like that! I suppose it was meant for comedy relief, but it didn't work for me. What was enjoyable was the persistent and methodical decoding methods used before computers were invented, and the follow-up in the effort to break a German spy ring, including an exciting but improbable ending. William Powell gives his usual wonderful charismatic performance, with Binnie Barnes also excellent as the femme fatale German spy and Cesar Romero very convincing as her accomplice. All other acting was uniformly good, but why was English-accented Henry Stephenson cast as a Russian ambassador?Based on a book by Herbert O. Yardley, who was the head of the U.S. Secret Service during WWI, the film has an air of authenticity.