James Llewellyn (William Collier Sr.) is a wealthy yet cranky old man who got his wealth in the radio electronics business. Llewellyn hired Douglas Cameron (William Henry) to do research on the new fangled technology called television. Douglas invents an interoffice communication system that has both sound and picture. Llewellyn ends up delighted with the device.
Douglas then shows him another invention he calls an “Iconoscope”. It is a type of television system but, unlike the current system, it can send sound and picture over a long distance. Douglas gives Llewellyn a demonstration of his long-distance television with his assistant, Dick Randolph (Richard Denning) who is 300 miles away. Llewellyn surmises that if this works it could advance the U.S. defense system and give them the upper hand in war. Llewellyn wants to perfect the system and donate it to the government.
Llewellyn is invited to a party at the home of his friend, Reni Vonich (Dorothy Tree). Also at the party are Burton Lawson (Minor Watson) and his daughter, Gwen (Judith Barrett). Lawson and Llewellyn had been friends and partners at one time but have had a falling out.
Reni and her co-hort, Boris (John Eldridge) deal in selling secret technology to foreign factions. Their main buyer is Carl Venner (Morgan Conway). A spy in the Llewellyn household made copies of the Iconoscope and sold them to Reni. Reni plans on using Lawson to build an Iconoscope from the stolen plans. Lawson thinks the plans came from someone who is a prisoner in a European concentration camp. Lawson agrees to make the Iconoscope.
Reni then plans on selling the devise to Venner and then getting rid of any loose ends. That not only includes Lawson and Gwen, but Llewellyn, Douglas and Dick as well.
“Television Spy” was released in 1939 and was directed by Edward Dmytryk. It is an American espionage thriller and a bit of a propaganda film.
The movie is quite dated, but in this instance, it adds a lot of charm to the movie the same way all the gadgets and gizmos did for the science fiction films of Flash Gordon and the Video Rangers. Although crude, television has been around since the twenties. Some of the facts in the movie are a little fanciful but the film is all the more fun for it.
The acting was also good and, even though he played a hood, seeing a young Anthony Quinn was nice too. I was also pleased to see one of my favorites, Dorothy Tree as a scheming spy. Although Nazis are never mentioned, the film takes place in 1939, the beginning of WWII, so it is assumed that they are the enterprise wanting to get their hands on the secret plans. Everything comes together to make an enjoyable little film.
The iconoscope was an actual video camera tube invented in by Vladimir K. Zworykin. It was the most commonly used television camera tube at that time.