AllMovie

At 49 minutes, Murder on the Waterfront was the shortest-ever Warner Bros. B picture. Alas, brevity is not the soul of wit in this updated remake of 1938's The Invisible Menace. Warren Douglas plays sailor Joe Davis, who while on leave in California gets mixed up with an enemy spy ring. The head Nazi intends to steal a top-secret thermostat. For a while, it looks as though Lt. Commander Holbrook (John Loder) is the villain, but he turns out to be a red herring before the picture is half over. In his efforts to thwart the baddies, Davis is aided and abetted by carnival performer Gloria (Joan Warfield), who wears her skimpy sideshow costume throughout the picture.