BY JOHN M. WHALEN

Made months before the U.S.’s entrance into World War II, “All Through the Night” (1941) stars Humphrey Bogart as “Gloves” Donahue, a New York Irish gangster battling Nazi fifth columnists. “Gloves” runs a bookie operation and he’s got the world by the tail until he gets a frantic call from his mother (Jane Darwell) who is upset because Herman Miller, the baker who makes “Gloves’ ” favorite cheesecake is suddenly missing. “Gloves”- with his gang which includes William Demarest, Jackie Gleason, Frank McHugh, and Phil Silvers- rush over to the bakery and find the baker stuffed in one of the pastry bins in the basement. A mysterious blonde (Kaaren Verne) shows up and disappears when the cops arrive.

Gloves and his pals can’t understand why anyone would want to harm poor old Mr. Miller, but Gloves’ mother tells him that the blonde who disappeared must know something, and she tells him to find her. Gloves doesn’t have a clue where to look and is not inclined to pursue the matter further. But Mom is last seen asking a peanut vender outside the bakery if he noticed the girl. “Gloves” and his boys go to his expensive apartment to relax, and no sooner does he light up his cigar than he gets an angry phone call from Marty Callahan (Barton MacClain), another Irish mug who owns a nightclub. He’s irate because “Gloves’“ mother is there raising a ruckus.

“Gloves” and his boys run down to the club and his mother insists that the girl who was in the bakery works at the club. How she knows this is never explained. But I guess the peanut vendor must have known. We’ll never know since his dialogue ended up on the cutting room floor. It’s an annoying gap in the continuity but it really doesn’t matter. The corkscrew script by Leonard Spigelgass and Edwin Gilbtert is intended to keep the audience guessing with one surprising reversal after another. What’s more little plot hole more or less?

Meanwhile, the mysterious blonde is there on the stage singing the “All Through the Night” theme song written by Johnny Mercer. “Gloves” recognizes her, likes what he sees and tells his mom to go home. He investigates and in the process of trying get to the girl, “Gloves” finds nightclub manager Joe Denning (Edward Brophy) shot. Denning holds up the five fingers of his hand as if trying to tell “Gloves” something. Witnesses see “Gloves” kneeling over the body so naturally he has to scram. On his way out he sees a cab carrying the girl and some shadowy figures rushing out of an alley. Through pals he knows at the cab company, “Gloves” finds the address the cab went to and continues his investigation.

And that’s just the beginning. It turns out Denning holding up five fingers was a warning that there was a fifth column movement of Nazis right there in New York. The mysterious blonde is part of the movement (or is she?), which is being run by Conrad Veidt and his pal Peter Lorre. They are planning to blow up a battle ship in New York Harbor. To think, it all started because “Gloves” couldn’t get his favorite cheesecake!

Movie studios had been under pressure for years by isolationists in Congress to refrain from making films that would incite the country to war. But with the growing threat of Nazism, the rumors of horrors occurring in Germany, and the known presence of Nazis in cities all over the U.S., by 1941 the atmosphere had changed. “All Through the Night,” according to director Vincent Sherman who shares an interesting alternate audio commentary track on the DVD with film historian Eric Lax, was an attempt by Warners to make an anti-Nazi comedy. Sherman admits that reaction to it was mixed. I suppose audiences weren’t sure what to make of a movie that plays like Damon Runyon meets “Watch on the Rhine.”

The idea for the story is based on some fact. There were Nazis in Brooklyn and other parts of New York in the late 1930s and the only ones concerned about them were the local gangsters and newspaper men. The general public and the police couldn’t have cared less. So the ending of “All Through the Night,” with rival gangs of Irish gangsters uniting and battling German saboteurs is not as far-fetched as it might seem.

“All Through the Night” is a chance to see a big cast of Warners’ regulars at or near their peak in a lively film that more than puts them through their paces. It’s not Bogart’s greatest film, but it continue to help elevate him up from the B-movie gangster films and westerns he’d once been relegated to. It would be only a short time later that he would once again be battling Nazis Veidt and Lorre in “Casablanca.” By then the isolationists were silent and the country was already at war.

“All Through the Night” presents a good many extras to enjoy on the DVD release. The audio commentary by Sherman and Lax is highly informative. Lax presents the historical facts and Sherman tells what it was like to work under the Warners studio system. The place was loaded with sets made for earlier movies. All he had to do was walk around and pick what he needed to make a movie. In those days film makers rarely left the back lot. In addition to the commentary, there is a cartoon, newsreel a trailer for “Gentleman Jim” and a comedy short subject about quitting smoking. There’s a lot to see and hear on this disc. It will definitely keep you watching “All Through the Night,” and maybe the next night, too.

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(John M. Whalen is the author of "Hunting Monsters is My Business: The Mordecai Slate Stories" . Click here to order the book from Amazon)