Step By Step (1946)

A Marine veteran (Lawrence Tierney) is immediately drawn to a pretty secretary (Anne Jeffreys) that he meets on a Malibu beach. However, the girl's new job as secretary to a state senator (Harry Harvey Sr.) unexpectedly involve her with murder and a nest of Nazi spies. Directed by Phil Rosen (MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET), this B programmer (with a running time of a little over an hour) is entertaining if slightly ludicrous in its plot. Tierney and Jeffreys had starred in the gangster sleeper DILLINGER the year before as Dillinger and his moll. Reunited here, they play the good guys instead. It's an unpretentious fast moving thriller with two attractive leads (both in bathing suits for the first half of the movie) and while the film requires some suspension of disbelief, it's a painless viewing. With George Cleveland, Lowell Gilmore, Myrna Dell, Robert Clarke and a scene stealing mutt named Bazuka.