Passport to Suez
Passport to Suez
NR | 19 August 1943 (USA)
Passport to Suez Trailers

The Lone Wolf goes undercover in Egypt to foil a Nazi plot to bomb and disable the Suez canal, which is vital to England's war effort.

Reviews
ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
nomoons11 I think when you go into a film and see that there aren't many actors you recognize you immediately think.."Uh-Oh". This is one of those films.A well known American person (or spy) gets a call and goes to North Africa. He's suppose to talk to some important people there but gets kidnapped and told if he doesn't co-operate they will kill his butler. He does but the kidnappers (who are nazi's with pretty amazing non-German accents) already know he will tell his superiors so they work out a plan to get what they want (the plans for the minefields in the Suez Canal) in reverse. Throughout all this we get a butler who constantly gets kidnapped and harassed and spies that, if you aren't blind or stupid, you figure out pretty early on. Will they get the plans before they get caught?This one wasn't terrible but wow was it pretty easy to see who the double agent was. I mean very early on you see in span of 5 minutes 2 separate incidents that show no other perpetrator but 1 and throughout the film your suppose to be guessing who the culprit is. The fact that it had a young Lloyd Bridges didn't really help cause his role is very minor. The casting for the 3 main leads was good and were noted character actors but the leftovers weren't really that impressive. For a mild B-grade film it was fairly entertaining because of the Casablanca feel it has to it but it's still just a nothing special type of film.The butler is the highlight for me. Also watch for the heavy who looks painfully like William Conrad of Jake and the Fatman fame. If you've got a spare 71 minutes then try this one and see some mild WWII spy intrigue.
Neil Doyle Enjoyable entry in the Lone Wolf series with ERIC BLORE supplying most of the humor with some clever lines and scene stealing tactics from WARREN WILLIAM, again playing the title role. It's a wartime espionage story with something about spies, mysterious laces, the glass on wristwatches and some '40s technology thrown in for good measure. All of it is highly improbable, as played here, and yet it's probably just the sort of escapist entertainment audiences wanted during WWII.ANN SAVAGE is the femme fatale (as usual), but it's really Warren William and Eric Blore who share the spotlight beautifully, playing off each other with their usual dexterity.SHELDON LEONARD has a good turn as a nightclub owner on the right side of the law and LLOYD BRIDGES again shows up in a brief supporting role.Not bad, but not much above average either.
Spondonman A very good film for Warren William to end his Lone Wolf career on; after a break Eric Blore soldiered on as valet for a few more films. This outing has an interesting plot, fascinating characters and relationships, inventive photography and Fritz and Karl had to suffice as the only links to the unmentioned Nazis.The Baddies are out to get the plans of the Allied fortifications for the Suez Canal to eventually control the region and then the world ... How they go about it, get it and lose it is as ingenious as it is ridiculous but as it's the McGuffin it's not that important anyway. The similarities to Casablanca are striking but this is a good film in its own right - the inter-relationships of everyone (all slow, sly or slinky) and especially everyone to Rembrandt, Whistler and Cezanne and vice versa are engrossing to behold and is perhaps the film's strongest point. The badinage between Blore and William was perfect, hardly any serious exchange between them throughout, except when Blore was either tied up or being untied. Lloyd Bridges was wasted in this one.All in all well worth watching as a non-serious potboiler, heavy political commentary will not be found here! William only made a few more films after this before he died of cancer in 1948, which makes Blore's hopeless look at the camera at the end with "Here we go again!" all the more poignant.
dexter-10 The importance of the Suez Canal in World War II cannot be overstated, except in this movie where it seems grossly understated. Correspondent/spy Valerie Blore (as played by Ann Savage) correctly appraised the situation when she says: "Whoever wins Africa wins the war." The Suez Canal was pivotal to the shipping of petroleum from the oil rich nations to Germany, which required fuel both for production and for keeping its armor moving and its airplanes flying. Control of North Africa meant control of the Suez. Even more so, it would solidify the grandiose plan of physically linking Japan with Germany, a plan not likely to be effectuated. Still, this movie loosely addresses the problem of Axis control if certain secret information is leaked to the enemy.As a film, if never quite stresses danger, with most of the action related to incidental elements: the engagement of Donald Jameson (Robert Stanford) to Valerie King, the bar owned by Johnny Booth (Sheldon Leonard), and the silly activities of the three counted-spies, whose movie names just happen to be Whistler, Rembrandt, and Cezanne. Most of the time the acting seems preoccupied with something other than what is happening. All in all, it seems a typical Lone Wolf movie where the danger of a nazi submarine lurking to get secret information is only slightly more important than the flowers in the hotel room. A major saving grace for this film is the acting of Eric Blore (as Jameson) who putters around as a sort of mini Winston Churchill.