A solid enough espionage thriller set in Tokyo before the invasion of Manchuria. James Cagney is the gruff newspaper man who sticks his neck out for no one (but named Nick, not Rick) but in the end realizes you can’t do business with the dirty Japs (his words, not mine.) Like I say, entertaining, if you are into this sort of thing. An interesting historical note: Newsman Cagney is working to expose the damning “Tanaka Memorial,” also known as the Japanese “Mein Kampf.” The baddie Japanese (almost exclusively white men in bad make up with worse accents in this picture) all brush aside this document and a forgery and hoax. But Cagney (and we) know different. But it turns out scholars today say the Tanaka Memorial, the actual document was a hoax, even though the sentiemnts expressed (first we take Manchuria, then Asia and the Pacific) were, eventually, to become Japan’s goals. Who isn’t fascinated by this?
Check out a book called The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang for more insight as to the Japanese national mindset circa mid-to-late 1930s. The comparisons to Mein Kampf aren’t that far off. No one wants to admit that these days, especially in Japan, but there was some foul shit going on back then.