19. Operation Pastorius inspired one motion picture filmed during the war
It is sometimes erroneously reported that Operation Pastorius was the inspiration for the wartime film Saboteur, starring Robert Cummings and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Saboteur was filmed beginning in November 1941 and wrapped in February 1942, months before the German agents of Pastorius began training. It premiered in April 1942, again before training was underway in Germany. The German operation did not inspire the film, but it may have had an impact on Hoover’s depiction of the FBI as being the sole reason Pastorius was discovered. In the film, federal agents are depicted as inept and bumbling.
Operation Pastorius did inspire a film the following year, They Came to Blow Up America, starring George Sanders and directed by Edward Ludwig. It is a highly fictionalized account, loosely based on the German sabotage operation. In the film, the school created in Germany to train saboteurs is infiltrated by an FBI agent. He returns as one of the saboteurs and disrupts the entire plot. Hoover likely enjoyed that one. The New York Times thoroughly panned the film in its review, though it can still be seen on DVD and other media.