Background to Danger

In 1942, Nazi Germany attempts to bring neutral Turkey into the war on its side by staging an assassination attempt on Franz von Papen, its ambassador to the country. American machinery salesman Joe Barton (George Raft) boards the Baghdad–Istanbul Express train at Aleppo and is attracted to another passenger, Ana Remzi (Osa Massen). When he later examines the envelope containing some securities she had entrusted to him, he finds maps of Turkey with handwritten annotations on them. Joe's life becomes entangled in espionage as he teams up with Tamara Zaleshoff (Brenda Marshall), the sister of Soviet spy Nikolai Zaleshoff (Peter Lorre), to prevent a German plot to incite war between Turkey and Russia.