The Girl in the Case (1944)

I rather enjoyed this quirky and quickly paced wartime thriller. "Warner" (Edmund Lowe) is a renowned lawyer who also dabbles, successfully, in a bit of locksmithery. Indeed, he is regularly called upon by companies and authorities alike to help them out when locks needs "unlocking". His skills are also on the radar of some devious Nazi spies who want to try and trick him into opening a safe in which some secret documents are securely stashed. Can he, and his increasingly involved wife "Myra" (Janis Carter) stay one step of the fifth columnists and, probably for him, not fall down the fire escape, or off the window ledge, or end up in a big chest or in jail with $25,000 of dodgy loot? The production is a bit basic and there's a bit too much dialogue, but when Lowe and Carter are sharing the screen together, there's enough comedy chemistry to raise a smile or two before the predicable denouement. This is typical WWII feel-good fayre, but some effort has gone into the story and the characters and it's certainly at the better end of the genre.