Lucky Jordan (1942)

I never really rated Alan Ladd but he's quite decent in this wartime thriller. He's the gangster "Lucky" who finds himself drafted! Despite the best efforts of his lawyer "Higgins" (Lloyd Corrigan) to get him off, he is duly posted - and promptly absconds. Not before, though, he encounters "Jill" (Helen Walker) who disapproves heartily of his unpatriotic attitude. She ends up his hostage and the briefcase she was carrying becomes the hottest property in town. We discover it contains some top secret army designs and that there's a group of Nazi fifth columnist's out to retrieve it. Now "Lucky" has to make some tough choices (and a fairly impassioned speech at the end) before their secrets fall into enemy hands. The drama itself is quite well put together and decently paced. There's a solid, if unremarkable, effort from Walker and a few scene stealing quips from Mabel Paige's rather astute "Annie" - the sharpest, shrewdest and wittiest of the bunch. It's all fairly standard fayre, but is an easy watch as it sows the seeds for US involvement in WWII.