I Was An American Spy

Claire Phillips is an American nightclub singer working in Singapore in the early 1940s, when the Japanese attack and take over the island country. Now trapped, and widowed since her husband was killed in the Bataan Death March, Claire agrees to aid an American secret agent in fighting the occupying Japanese troops. She is captured by the enemy, tortured, and sentenced to be shot, but is rescued at the last minute by her American contact. This war-time tale is based on the true story of Americas own "Mata Hari" of the South Pacific, and stars Ann Dvorak ("Scarface," "Flame of Barbary Coast") as Claire Phillips, Gene Evans ("Operation Petticoat," "Shock Corridor") as the American secret agent, and Douglas Kennedy ("Dark Passage," "The Fastest Guitar Alive"), Philip Ahn (TVs "Kung Fu," "Thoroughly Modern Millie") and Richard Loo ("The Man With the Golden Gun," "The Sand Pebbles").

I WAS AN AMERICAN SPY is a true story, based on a series of autobiographical Reader's Digest articles written by Claire Phillips. Ann Dvorak stars as Ms. Phillips, an American nightclub singer trapped in Singapore when the Japanese march in. Having lost her husband to the Bataan death march, Phillips agrees to join an American secret agent (Gene Evans) in undermining the Japanese occupation troops. She is captured by the enemy, tortured, and sentenced to be shot, but is rescued at the last minute by her American contact. I WAS AN AMERICAN SPY handles its more brutal scenes with a marked degree of tastefulness, thanks to the careful direction of Lesley Selander. Just as in their wartime movie appearances, Chinese actor Richard Loo and Korean actor Philip Ahn are eminently hissable as the Japanese villains.