Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Aubrey Hackett 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.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** With the war over and Nazi Germany in total ruin those crazy and determined Nazis on the lamb in the USA are again planning to restore the Third, now Forth, Reich to it's past glories in a plan step by step to undermine the very nations, lead by the USA, that defeated them. This insane plan is uncovered by US Senator Remmy,Harry Harvey, who's OSS Agent and close friend Blackton, Addison Richards,has by going undercover uncovered it. Not wasting any time the Nazis headed by on the run wanted war criminal Von Dorn, Lowell Gilmore, make short work of Sen. Remmy's plans to expose them by kidnapping Remmy and his sexy blond private secretary of only one day Evelyn Smith, Anne Jefferys, while at the same time offing Blackton in the process.It just happened that just released from the service shell-shocked, from action in the South Pacific, US Marine Sgt. Johnny Christopher, Lawrence Tierney, and his cute and faithful mutt Bazooka happened to drop in dressed only in his boxer shorts, his clothes got locked in his car, to save the day as well as the nation from a Nazi takeover that was in progress. Johnny had gotten very friendly with Evelyn who in fact wouldn't give him the time of day by meeting her on the beach while she was taking a dip in the Pacific Ocean. With both Evelyn and Sen. Remmy kidnapped by the Nazis lead by Von Dron Johnny in looking for her to ask Evelyn out, with only his shorts on, for a date smelled that there was something fishy going on with the more or less plain Jane looking Gretchen, Myrna Dell, impersonating the beautiful Evelyn claiming to be the girl, Evelyn Smith, that he was looking for.***SPOILERS*** It's fast and furious action with Jonny & Evelyn now fugitives from justice in being mistaken as Nazi spies & saboteurs on the run from the police & FBI getting help from the kindly motel owner Capt. Simpson played by George Cleveland ,of later TV "Lassie" fame, who got the drop on Van Dorn by his claiming to have gone fishing in the salt filled Picific Ocean and having caught fresh water fish! Kidnapped beaten and taken for a ride to be deep sixth in the Pacific Ocean Johnny screws the Nazis by using the tail lights of the car their driving to give out an SOS that brought the entire local police state troopers national guard as well as members of the US Navy down on them!

LeonLouisRicci Short Little Throw-Away of a Movie has a Fast Pace and a Lawrence Tierney Good Guy to Boot. It is Exciting and Never Very Serious in its Attempt at a Story of German Spies (the war was over), but Nevertheless was Undeterred in Using the Defeated Nazis as Germans Gone Underground just Waiting for Another Chance.It is All Flighty and Fluff with a Dog. Some Comedy Among the Espionage as the Mistaken Identity Couple Outwit the Police and the Bad Guys with the Help of an Old Jalopy and a Crusty Geezer with a Knack for Knowing Innocence when He sees it.At just Over an Hour it is a Pleasant Time Waster with some Joyful Action and Plenty of Silly Suspense to Keep Things Interesting. It may be the Only Movie where the Star is in a Bathing Suit and Nothing Else, Showing Plenty of Beefcake, for what Seems-Like Forever in this Oddly Pastiched Programmer.

krorie This programmer is action packed with a story filled with intrigue and suspense. It was released during the transitional year 1946 when Hollywood was switching from the Nazi/Japanese menace to the Communist Cold War threat. Apparently, this entertaining little item was a hold over from the year before."Step by Step" deals with a Nazi spy ring in American attempting to stop vital intelligence information from reaching a US senator, involving murder and impersonation. Two innocents, Evelyn Smith (Anne Jeffreys) and Johnny Christopher (Lawrence Tierney)--if you can believe Tierney as an innocent--stumble into the espionage web as a result of a chance confrontation on the beach where Christopher is walking his dog, Bazooka, a friendly little mutt who's not bad as a Nazi hunter. Christopher becomes suspicious when the Nazi agents try to pass one of their own, Gretchen (Myrna Dell), off as Evelyn. Christopher comments to the effect that Gretchen has the body but not the face. "She looks like she just bit into a green persimmon," is one comment used in the film to describe Gretchen's puss. Christopher and Smith find an ally in motel keeper, Caleb Simpson (George Cleveland), a jolly old chap who provides a lot of fun in this otherwise rather dour tale of mistaken identity.One of the best program thrillers to come out of Hollywood at the time, the acting is first rate with Lawrence Tierney playing against type. He was the definitive big screen "Dillinger," released the year before, until Warren Oates came along nearly thirty years later to equal his performance. A programmer was approximately an hour-long B (budget) film released to play as a second feature to a major Hollywood release or as a double feature with another B movie. This is the way it worked in my home town: The major release would play as an "owl show," beginning at midnight on Saturday. It provided a good excuse for a teenager, called youngster back then, to keep his date out late without upsetting her parents too much. The major flick would continue to play on Sunday through Tuesday. Then for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the early evening show on Saturday, a double feature, sometimes a triple feature, would be shown which presented the programmers such as "Step by Step." Included in all this would be cartoons, selected short subjects, advertisements, previews (coming attractions), and newsreels. Saturday afternoons were set aside for the kids. Usually, B westerns, two or three, would be shown along with cartoons, shorts, advertising, previews, newsreels, plus the added attraction of a serial. This was a treat for the children. For only a nickle or later a dime, kids would be entertained all afternoon while their parents shopped or took care of other business. They might all stay around for the early evening shows. Only the teens and adults usually stayed for the owl show.

Phil Reeder A senator, his secretary, a German spy ring, an ex-marine and his feisty little mutt, and an amiable codger converge to give us this peppy spy-comedy. This was before the spy spoof (James Bond, Austin Powers) which feature absurd, cartoonish heroes battling impossible threats. The STEP BY STEP genre, though its plausibility is still suspect, is more realistic in its characters and especially its threats, such as German spies. There actually WERE German spies.Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys manage to meet and immediately get mixed up in the murder of a "government operative" who has come to give vital information to the senator Jeffreys works for. It doesn't matter that we're never told the nature of the information the spies are after; the movie is too short and the plot too simple for that. It's strictly a FOR FUN picture, with Lawrence Tierney less of a tough guy and more comical than usual. I mean, here's a guy who locks himself out of his woody, then later, accompanied by a bow-tie wearing cop (it was the Forties, just accept it), enters the senator's presence wearing nothing but swimming trunks!The dog, Bazooka, has some pretty good moments. He's one of those 40's canine actors who are possessed of irritatingly and at the same time charmingly unrealistic smarts - such as instantly recognizing the hammer the spies throw at him as an instrument by which his master can break into the locked car.John Hamilton plays the Captain, proprietor of the motel where Tierney and Jeffreys hide out. Funny when the loveable codger asks the couple for his radio amplifier tube back so he can listen to Dick Tracy.STEP BY STEP succeeds as a FUN picture, but I can't help wondering how these quickies were originally presented. Double features? Because if I'd been part of the moviegoing public in 1946, I'd have wanted at least another short one to go along with SBS.