Submarine Alert (1943)
German spies use a stolen shortwave transmitter prototype to broadcast top secret shipping info to an offshore Japanese sub. To nab the spy ring, the U.S. government has the West Coast's top radio engineers fired and shadowed to see if the Germans recruit them to complete work on the prototype radio. Radio engineer Lew Deerhold, a resident alien without a job to pay for a lifesaving operation for his adorable little ward Gina falls prey to the spy ring and is swept up in a maelstrom of deceit and danger.
Calling All Agents! STAND BY FOR THRILLS! ADVENTURE! ACTION!
Los Angeles, California, USA
The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
Submarine Alert is available for free download at the Internet Archive.
Submarine Alert was another in the series of B films churned out by the Pine-Thomas team. The film villain again was Swedish-born Nils Asther who was featured in three war adventures put out by William H. Pine and William C. Thomas.
The budget for Submarine Alert did not allow for more than a few studio back-screen shots and the use of stock footage and miniatures. During the bombing of the submarine, at least three different aircraft types are inexplicably used during the attack.
Factual errors
When the radio tracking stations are reported in their triangulation points of the secret transmitter they would be reporting the location by degrees (0 to 360) for the fix other than just saying "west to northeast".
Anachronisms
When the bombers are scrambled, we see a squadron of single seat P-40s taking off. When the submarine is attacked, there are at least two crew in the aircraft.