The Dawn Express

Plot synopsis:
In the middle of World War II, Nazi Capt. Gemmler (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) is in need of a powerful chemical formula to improve the energy output of ordinary gasoline. In his quest for this formula he finds two individuals that are of use: the chemist and playboy Tom Fielding (William Bakewell) and his co-worker, Robert Norton (Michael Whalen), who is engaged to Tom's sister Nancy (Anne Nagel). They are already involved in such a project for another employer. Using his secret agents, Gemmler kidnaps them.
The unsuspecting Tom goes to the nearby Alpine-style tavern one night and meets a Polish refugee named Linda Pavlo (Constance Worth). They strike up a conversation, and the following morning Tom is late for work. Robert tells him to stay away from unknown women he meets at the bar by chance like that – nothing good will come out of it. The president of the chemical company where they work, Franklyn Prescott (C. Montague Shaw), gets a visit from a government agent, James Curtis (Jack Mulhall), and is told that there has been a double murder in another chemical plant. Prescott is not worried, but refers to his security plan: the plant is only working on one half of the precious formula, while another plant on the East Coast is working on the other half. Curtis breaks the news to Prescott that the East Coast plant has been compromised and sabotaged by one of its own chemists (George Pembroke) who stole half of the formula, now identified as working for the Nazis under the name of Karl Schmidt.
In the night, when Tom and Robert return to the same tavern as the night before, Curtis' agents follow them there. Tom meets Linda again, and since she is actually a Nazi agent he is lured into a room where Gemmler is waiting. Gemmler threatens to hurt both Tom's mother and his sister Nancy if they do not play along and give him the formula. When Tom leaves the tavern that night, he is again followed by one of Curtis' agents, but one of Gemmler's spies murders the agent.
The following day Prescott and Curtis talk to Robert, explaining their theory that Tom, in an act of treason, has murdered the agent. Robert does not buy it, claiming Tom is innocent. What none of them are aware of is that Tom's sister Nancy is eavesdropping on their conversation. After Prescott and Curtis has left, Tom and Robert talk about what's going on; later that night Tom meets once more with Linda at the bar. This time she offers him $100,000 in exchange for the formula.
After Tom's meeting with Linda, he, Robert and Nancy team up to try to frame the Nazi spies and get rid of them once and for all. Tom goes to the chemical plant to retrieve the formula, and gives it tor Robert. He in turn brings the formula to his meeting with Linda and is escorted to Gemmler's office. Suddenly, Tom appears at Gemmler's office and starts arguing over the payment. This results in Gemmler withholding payment entirely. Robert is knocked out cold by Gemmler's goons. The spies bring Tom with them to the airport, where Gemmler's contact, Karl Schmidt, is about to arrive.
The government agents have followed Tom and his party, but are too late to catch Gemmler before he leaves for the airport. They do, however, arrest Linda and a few other spies lingering at Gemmler's office. At the airport, Gemmler forces Tom into the aircraft and it takes off. Schmidt decides to test the formula while they are in mid air. Tom, who knows that the future of his country is at stake, makes a deliberate mistake in mixing the chemical ingredients. The aircraft explodes, leaving no survivors, with Tom sacrificing himself to prevent the formula from reaching its destination.

Tags: violence

Review:
Don't Let Title Fool You. While there is an airplane at the end of the film this film really has nothing to do with the cover artwork.
This film deals with synthetic fuel (formula 311) developed by two scientists apart from each other as security measures.
A love interest between the two stars adds to the story and intrigue.
This is a slower paced film but I like the plot and the conclusion is surprising.
The good news is it is available for free on the internet archive and their copy is watchable.
The score by Lee Zahler is passable.
Nothing stands out but it is passable.
The number of people who were watching Norton was hilarious.
The German Captain Gemmler in the picture somewhat reminds me Col. Klink in the television show "Hogan Heroes." I give this film a #100 ranking..
Some more zip in the gas tank.
It's a PRC film so start with low expectations, but The Dawn Express will not even meet those.
This is a horribly dated early World War II era flag waver when we were told to be on the alert for Nazi spies everywhere.Michael Whalen and William Bakewell are a pair of scientists working in a chemical laboratory on a formula to get a little more mileage out of the gasoline in your tank's tank.
Something no doubt that General Patton will find invaluable, not to mention what it will do for the post war civilian drivers.
The Nazis want it too and they're even sending one of their top scientists, flying him secretly to America to test it for himself.
It's Bakewell they get to first putting an alluring Constance Worth in his path.
Bakewell does fancy himself a player.
Then it's up to Whalen to keep the formula out of Nazi hands and rescue Bakewell if he can do both.
In fact he's engaged to Bakewell's sister Anne Nagel.There are about a dozen holes in this story and it looks like it was shot with an old Bell&Howell home movie camera.
I just hope our post war drivers got the benefit of this research..
Cheap and filled with plot holes..
When "The Dawn Express" began, I assumed that It would be a pretty bad film.
After all, it was made by PRC and it had a cast filled with complete unknowns.
And, it turned out I was pretty much right about this one.
The film is a wartime propaganda movie—meant to capitalize on the war as well as engender support at home for the war effort.
Because of this, it is unabashedly patriotic and obvious.
Subtle it isn't.
Quickly written and often illogical it is.The film begins with a couple workers from a chemical plant being kidnapped by Nazi spies.
Then, after pumping them for information about a top secret formula, the two are murdered and their bodies dumped.
Not surprisingly, US agents took notice of this—and it's odd the Nazis didn't think of this.
The next guy they pump for information is different.
Instead of kidnapping him, they know he's a bit of a playboy—so they send a pretty Nazi agent his way.
Soon, her superiors demand he give them the formula but he refuses.
They threaten to kill his family and he asks for time.
Now you'd think they'd kill him or torture him.but they let him go!
And, oddly, this dodo doesn't tell anyone!!
What's going to happen next and how will Professor Schmidt figure into all this nonsense, find out for yourself.Despite having many more plot holes than I mentioned above, the film has a certain silly likability.
I often find these super-low budget films great fun if you don't take them seriously and they are excitingif also quite dumb.
Exciting and dumbyep, that pretty much sums "The Dawn Express"!.
Interesting tale of nazi spies.
It is during World War II and nazi spies will stop at nothing to get a secret formula of increasing the power of gasoline.
Two scientists Norton and Fielding have the information.
Will Norton accept the offer of 100,000 dollars or will Fielding accept the offer of the lives of his mother and sister?
What about the protection of the american intelligence team assigned to protect them?
One of the agents should have watched an episode of "Get Smart" because when he gets killed he could have said "fell for the old knife hidden in the blind man's cane trick."  A rather interesting film and worth the watch..
Amateurish film quickly loses interest.
Even so-called "B" movies can be good - if they have a good plot, screenplay, sets and settings, and cast.
Unfortunately, "The Dawn Express" is lacking in all of these.
As much as one might want to have an interesting espionage thriller, this film just screams "amateur." The script is terrible, the plot and acting resemble the melodrama of silent films.
Most propaganda films are much better than this.
The plot idea is a good one, but the story just didn't get a very good screenplay.
Either that or the direction was terrible.
More than likely, it was a combination of the two.
Even the most die-hard war movie collectors will want to forget this poor film..
WW II storyline.
Stars Michael Whalen and Anne Nagel.
Picture quality is pretty terrible, but the acting is so lame, it's unlikely this one will be restored anytime soon.
The usual wartime flick, with the Nazi's of germany trying to steal the formula from workers who get knocked off one by one.
The story line is actually pretty good, if formulaic.
Acting and production values are pretty cardboard and stilted, but easy to follow.
Written by Arthur St. Claire, who wrote a ton of stuff in the 1940s.
Directed by Albert Herman...
looks like he directed many, many shorties from the early days of silents, and jumped right in with full length features when the studios began with talkies.
An M&A Production, which seems to stand for Merrick and Alexander, the producers..
Worth is worth attention!.
Michael Whalen (Robert Norton), Anne Nagel (Nancy Fielding), William Bakewell (Tom Fielding), Constance Worth (Linda Pavlo), Hans Von Twardowski (Captain Gremmler), Jack Mulhall (Curtis), Kenneth Harlan (Brown), Crane Whitley (Ed), Frank Mayo (the FBI agent who shadows Tom), George Pembroke (Professor Schmidt), Robert Frazer (John Oliver), Hans Von Morhart (Heinrich), Michael Vallin (Argus), Montague Shaw (Prescott), William Costello (Otto), William Yetter (Wolf), George Morrell, Milburn Morante (waiters), Jack Gardner (spy with paper), Ted Adams (Sullivan, the night guard).Director: ALBERT HERMAN.
Original screenplay: Arthur St Claire.
Photography: Eddie Linden.
Film editor: Leete R.
Brown.
Art director: James Altwies.
Music director: Lee Zahler.
Assistant director: Seymour Roth.
Sound recording: Corson Jowett.
Associate producer: Arthur Alexander.
Producers: Max Alexander, George M.
Merrick.
Executive producer: George R.
Batcheller.
Copyright 20 February 1942 by Producers Releasing Corporation.
The movie did open in New York in 1942, but the actual date was not recorded.
U.S. release: 27 March 1942.
No theatrical release in Australia.
66 minutes.Alternative title: NAZI SPY RING.SYNOPSIS: Nazi agents will stop at nothing to gain the secret of a chemical formula which will enhance the power of gasoline.COMMENT: Here's the lovely Constance Worth from "Criminals Within", again at her villainous best.
This time she has another sympathetic director in Albert Herman who, in collaboration with photographer Eddie Linden, has contrived lots of spooky close-ups of all the heavies (even the minor ones) which are somewhat arbitrarily edited into the action.
Nonetheless, it's all moderately exciting by Poverty Row standards, even if the rather routine story does come to a foregone conclusion which will only surprise those callous but stupid Nazi spies..
As dull as a butter knife but not nearly as sweet..
Propopganda drama of Nazi's after two scientists involved in the creation of an explosive.
Stereotypical Nazi villains burbling typically lame trite dialog, a sexy femme fatal out to seduce one of the two to get her hands on it, and quite suddenly, an action packed finale that ends with a bang while the whole film itself seems to be buried in a whimper.
Michael Whelan and William Bakewell are two pals who become involved in the Nazi's quest with Bakewell the sap who falls prey to the obviously sinister Constance Worth's flirtations.
Whelan is pulled in but his intentions are obviously to foil their evil plan, while Bakewell goes along with the plot simply to protect his sister (Anne Nagel) who is engaged to Whelan and their father.
Excruciatingly slow pacing makes this extremely difficult to get through but that all of a sudden changes its course as the film begins to wrap up after just over an hour.
Even that first 90 percent of the movie is extremely hard to get through, but there's a sense of satisfaction with a shockingly violent ending.
The presence of a supposedly blind man with a knife hidden inside his cane only adds to the stereotype of brutally evil Nazi villains, and the opening scene of another professor being brutally targeted then murdered doesn't aid in any subtlety that the film might have tried for better results otherwise..
This will be a glorious day for the Fuhrer!.
***SPOILERS*** One of the very first movies out of Hollywood after the entrenches of the US into WWII the film "Dawn Express" concentrates on the Nazis effort to steal, by hook crook and pay offs, the secret formula 3-B-11 no not the ingredients of a new kind of soft drink from Coca Cola but something that has to do with doubling the mileage of your gas tank when it's dropped in the gasoline.
This secret is so important to the Nazi war machine that Germany sent it's top secret agent, who has trouble hiding his very prominent German accent, to the US Captain Gemmer, Harr Hans Heinrich Von Twardowski, who never makes mistakes to get his hands on it.It's the two US chemists Robert Norton & Tom Fielding, Michael Whalen & William Bkewell, whom Capt.
Gemmer wants kidnapped and then paid off, with $100,000.00 in US currency, to give him formula 3-B-11 or else he'll not only off them but their family members as well!
It's when Norton finally gives in to spill the beans or the formula to the Nazis that his good friend Tom Fielding turns traitor to his country and not only volunteers to give them the magic formula for gasoline enhancement but mix it for them as well!***SPOILERS*** As we'll soon see Tom Fielding is no traitor to his country but a full fledged hero instead.
Putting his life on the life Fielding is brought on a Nazi airplane to fly back to Germany with top Nazi chemist Karl Schmidt, George Pembroke, to check if him mixing formula 3-B-11 is on the up and up.
You begin to wounder why Schmidt couldn't do it himself?
It was an act of desperation by Fielding but he in the end put and end to the Nazis attempt to get their hands on secret formula 3-B-11 by putting an end to them as well as himself!P.S What Tom Fielding did was copied in real life by the likes of Japanese kamikaze pilots as well as Al-Qeada suicide bombers who's actions in some cases were just as successful as his were!