Confessions of a Nazi Spy

So when the FBI broke up a Nazi spy ring operating inside the United States in 1938, Warner saw a film.

It bought the story of the agent who had investigated the case and began developing what would become Confessions of a Nazi Spy.

Robinson had his own reason to understand the stakes.

Like the Warners, he was an immigrant Jew whose family had fled anti-Semitic violence in Eastern Europe.

By now, he was also known in Hollywood as an anti-Nazi.

Warner cast him as Edward Renard, the FBI agent who tracks down the Nazi network.

Confessions of a Nazi Spy did not disguise what it was about.

It drew on the real 1938 spy case and showed Nazi agents operating inside the United States, linked to the German-American Bund and ultimately to Berlin.

Along with Gone With the Wind, there was The Wizard of Oz.

Stagecoach, Ninotchka, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, The Women- And I'll tell you what- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington ... wild horses aren't gonna drag me off this floor until those people have heard everything I've got to say And episodic serials too, like Dick Tracy's G-Men and Buck Rogers.

[upbeat music] Stanley spent Saturdays in the neighborhood movie houses, going to matinees for 25 cents.

When he was a teenager, he skipped school as often as twice a week so he could see a double bill.

And I don't know how you feel about this.

So last year, I had the good fortune of having Matt Willicks, Jace Paradon, and Andrew Bueno on to talk about Confessions of a Nazi Spy.

And in that discussion, we came to the conclusion, and they kind of got me around to thinking about this because I hadn't considered it until we were prepping for it and we recorded it, which is as groundbreaking as that movie is, because it cannot specify the exact threat in terms of who are the intended victims of the Nazi menace, which are the Jewish people.

And it's not speaking loud enough, I guess.

It's weird, because I've watched this movie a ton, but this year I've watched it four times.

Sometimes you just need to watch Nazis get punched.

That's part of the thing is like I think that going off of what I said about our talk about Confessions of a Nazi Spy last year and how films like these aren't extremely helpful because they're not identifying the issue head on.

I think what it reminded me of is like it reminded me of a similar thing that we discussed in that episode, which is it is still fun to watch a Nazi get fucking beat the shit out of.