Gloves poses as a bidder, but after being recognized, he gets knocked out by Leda, tied up, and left in storage room with one of his boys, Sunshine, who was captured earlier.
Leda helps them break free before they can be shipped out in crates. While escaping, Gloves and Sunshine walk into a room with maps, charts, a short-wave radio, and a portrait of Hitler.
They realize what Joe was indicating, that their captors are “fivers” or Nazi fifth columnists. Gloves finds a notebook and reads Miller’s name as well as that of “Leda Hamilton,” her Jewish name “Uda Hammel,” and the death of her father in Dachau concentration camp.
With Leda in tow, they escape, but are chased by Ebbing and his cronies into Central Park. Leda explains that she works with Ebbing only to save her father’s life. While Gloves fights with a Nazi, Leda reads the torn-out page that states her father is already dead. Gloves and Leda go to the police, who search the antique house, but find it empty.
Not believing Gloves’ story, they attempt to arrest him, but he escapes by diving into the East River. He arrives at his lawyer’s apartment, only to have Marty and his mob break in, eager to avenge Joe’s murder. After Gloves convinces them of his innocence, the two gangs join forces against the Nazi spies.
Gloves, Sunshine, and Barney go to the station where Leda is being held. Ebbing, however, has bailed her out, and they arrive as she is forced into a car. Following the car, they find a large underground Nazi meeting.
Gloves and Sunshine capture two Nazis and impersonate them to get in, but the explosives expert Gloves impersonates is asked to report on his work. Gloves and Sunshine stall the meeting using a double talk ruse until the combined gangs arrive to break it up.
Ebbing escapes, asking Pepi to join him in suicide attack to blow up a battleship in New York. Pepi refuses, so Ebbing kills him and proceeds alone. Gloves follows him to the docks, where Ebbing forces him into motorboat with high explosives.
At gunpoint, Ebbing forces Gloves to steer the boat toward the battleship. Gloves suddenly steers the boat off course and jumps into the water, while the boat with Ebbing on board crashes and explodes.
Back at the police station, Gloves and Leda are glad that all charges have been dropped and that the mayor is going to honor him at city hall.
In the goofy ending, Ma Donahue complains that the milkman has disappeared, and as before, she’s “got a feeling” about it.
Cast
Humphrey Bogart as Alfred “Gloves” Donahue
Conrad Veidt as Hall Ebbing
Kaaren Verne as Leda Hamilton
Jane Darwell as Mrs. ‘Ma’ Donahue
Frank McHugh as Barney
Peter Lorre as Pepi
Judith Anderson as Madame
William Demarest as Sunshine
Jackie Gleason as Starchy
Phil Silvers as Waiter
Wallace Ford as Spats Hunter, Gloves’ lawyer
Barton MacLane as Marty Callahan
Edward Brophy as Joe Denning
Martin Kosleck as Steindorff
Jean Ames as Annabelle
Ludwig Stössel as Mr. Herman Miller
Irene Seidner as Mrs. Miller
James Burke as Lieutenant Forbes
Ben Welden as Smitty
Hans Schumm as Anton
Charles Cane as Sage
Frank Sully as Spence
Sam McDaniel as Saratoga
Credits:
Directed by Vincent Sherman
Screenplay by Leonard Spigelgass, Edwin Gilbert, story by Leo Rosten and Leonard Spigelgass
Produced by Hal B. Wallis, Jerry Wald
Cinematography Sidney Hickox
Edited by Rudi Fehr
Music by Adolph Deutsch (score)
Song: “All Through the Night,” Arthur Schwartz (music); Johnny Mercer (lyrics)
Production company: Warner Bros.
Release date: January 10, 1942
Running time: 107 minutes
Budget $643,000
Box office $1,968,000
DVD Special Features
Commentary by Vincent Sherman and Bogart biographer Eric Lax; Warner Night at the Movies 1942 short subjects gallery: Vintage newsreel. Joe Doakes comedy short So You Want to Give Up Smoking. Classic cartoon Lights Fantastic. Trailers of All Through the Night and 1942’s Gentleman Jim. New featurette Call the Usual Suspects: The Craft of the Character Actor.