MGM Savings Thanks To Train Travel

Espionage (1937) Revealed As Euro War Approaches

Breezy B from Metro, set mostly aboard train. Rival reporters Edmund Lowe and Madge Evans pursue munitions king Paul Lukas to get goods on foreign power behind him, brink-of-war talk presaging thrillers that would ring warning bell over a next couple of years. Countries involved are non-specific, but Germany and Russia are good guesses based on accent and mannerisms. Otherwise, it's never-never world of newshound double-dealing and third act lapse to farce. B's were built for mostly mirth, heavier stuff figured to be province of a main feature. Lowe and Evans are a congenial couple; they might have clicked as one of Thin Man spin-offs MGM tried in the late 30's. Railroading as backdrop to mayhem was a budget standby and pleases all the more now that we can't travel said way anymore, at least not in such elegance as here. Billy Gilbert, billed as William, does his sneeze act in the dining car, a messiest of ones I've seen (and Billy sneezed lots). Eddie Lowe was said to have subbed here for William Powell, so Espionage may have been planned as an A, downgraded after to a B. It looks richer than customary, even given usual Metro glossing of support pics.