Phantom Raiders (1940)

While vacationing in Panama, a detective (Walter Pidgeon) is approached by an international insurance firm to investigate the possible sabotage of merchant ships after a Scotland Yard agent (John Burton) is murdered. Directed by Jacques Tourneur (OUT OF THE PAST). The second of MGM's three film Nick Carter series is a benign spy movie that moves quickly at a 70 minute running time but one can barely remember it minutes after it's over which isn't necessarily a bad thing, after all it's served its purpose. Once again, Donald Meek provides some unneeded comic relief as Pidgeon's bee keeping sidekick but at least he's a little less annoying here than in the first movie. Audiences liked it well enough so that MGM turned a modest profit. With Joseph Schildkraut as the film's villain, Florence Rice, John Carroll, Cecil Kellaway, Nat Pendleton, Dwight Frye and Steffi Duna.