Don't talk

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Movie
Original title Don't talk
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1942
length 22 minutes
Rod
Director Joseph M. Newman
script Alan Friedman
camera Jackson Rose
cut Harry Komer
occupation

Don't Talk is a 1942 American short film by Joseph M. Newman .

action

MGM's crime reporter introduces FBI agent Jack Sampson, who wants to warn the American public about industrial spies in view of the dangers of World War II . From his desk he reports on an incident that occurred on November 29, 1941:

A bomb explodes in a large industrial plant and destroys a warehouse with valuable manganese . The FBI is investigating immediately, while the radio announces that it is sabotage. In a beauty salon this will also be heard by a hairdresser. He apologizes to his customer and goes into a back room where three men and two women are waiting for him. He complains that the explosion didn't go according to plan and only one hall was destroyed. He then opens a letter with a calendar on which he makes a marked date visible with a liquid. Then he burns the paper. One of the women works as a waitress named Beulah Anderson in a café where the talkative workers of the plant regularly hang out. Jack Sampson and his people find out about her. From a house across the street, the FBI agents watch the café to find out who Beulah is in contact with and how she is transmitting the information she has gathered. It turns out that she uses the menu in the shop window, on which she repeatedly exchanges letters or lists other dishes.

One of her accomplices then tries to plant a bomb on a truck and without further ado shoots a guard who surprised him. He packs up his equipment including the bomb and disappears. The FBI discovered the hole in the truck where the bomb was supposed to go off. The agents also learned that the same truck was supposed to drive to the industrial plant in the evening and that a worker had spoken to the guard in the café about it. The FBI is now inspecting cans and junk in the café, and is subjecting all scraps of paper and food to various chemical tests to determine how Beulah passes on her information. However, the tests remain inconclusive. When the FBI agents finally find out that Beulah is using the menu to deliver, they set a trap for the spies by spreading false information about a transport on a train. When a couple in the café talks about the actual transport with several trucks in Beulah's presence, Beulah leaves the café before her end of work and is now being followed by the FBI. She goes to the hairdresser and tells him that the transport will be carried out by truck. He immediately instructs his accomplices over the phone and then drives away in his car. Two FBI agents become aware of the car and pursue it. They eventually meet the gang and are captured. The spies then want to blow up a bridge as soon as the trucks are on it. Since the two FBI agents do not answer their radio, Jack Sampson sends off a police patrol. As the trucks approach the bridge, one of the FBI agents manages to escape in a car and stop the trucks. The police patrol shoots two of the saboteurs and the rest of the gang is arrested by the FBI.

Finally, Jack Sampson advises the audience never to talk about their professional activities outside of work, as a spy might be around.

background

Don't Talk was produced by MGM as part of the Crime Does Not Pay series and published in the United States on February 28, 1942 .

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1943 , Don't Talk was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Short Film category, but could not prevail against Warner Brothers' Beyond the Line of Duty .

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