Apparently intending to make a liberal statement, producer Walter Wanger and director William Wellman instead came up with this strange, authoritarian nightmare in which the public is mystified and manipulated--for its own good, of course--by knowing and protective rulers. The film takes the form of a taut, tough action-melodrama (of interest are the special montage effects by Slavko Vorkapich.) The story involves a benevolently strong president who arranges to have himself kidnapped in order to redirect public opinion away from warmongering and fascist demagoguery. The Secretary of War takes over and declares martial law, giving the secret police license to eliminate the bad guys--Gray Shirts backed by munitions manufacturers and other corrupt industrialists. Eileen Bowser writes for the Museum of Modern Art, “Although the film mounts a scathing attack on the munitions industry...it spends little time pamphleteering; it illustrates, and moves on. It makes its points in crackling bursts.... High among the achievements of the production is the casting. The parts are played by character actors whose unglamorous and not overly familiar faces lend conviction to their roles.... (The) real master stroke is the casting of genial Charles Grapewin (against type) as the mastermind of the warmongers....” Rosalind Russell is seen here, early in her film career, as a Washington hostess.