The Devil Pays Off
The Devil Pays Off is a 1941 American spy film directed by John H. Auer. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Recording (Charles L. Lootens). Plot The former naval lieutenant Chris Waring is awakened by the police late time and delivered to Admiral Curtiss, his former commander. The admiral asks Waring for his support in an undercover operation. The op is about the shipowner Arnold Debrock, who sold ships to the United States but later got manipulated by enemy powers in a mysterious way. Since Curtiss knows that Chris is successful with women, he asks him to flirt with Debrocks's wife Valerie Avancen. Chris initially refuses to participate, but he changes his opinion in a short while after seeing Valerie boarding a ship to Havana and takes up the pursuit of the beautiful woman. He actually succeeds in flirting viciously with Valerie and to get her to go with him to his cabin. There, however, they both meet, for Chris's great surprise, Joan Millard, the Admiral Curtiss's secretary. Asked by Valerie, Joan introduces herself as Chris's wife, and Valerie also reveals her identity and says that she left her husband. Joan tells speechless Chris that