Synopsis

Howard W. Campbell Jr., an American raised in Germany, becomes a celebrated Nazi radio propagandist during World War II while secretly transmitting coded messages for U.S. intelligence. After the war, he hides in New York under an assumed identity, haunted by his broadcasts and uncertain loyalties. When old enemies and former allies resurface, Campbell must confront whether intentions can outweigh the consequences of his actions.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film adapts Kurt Vonnegut's 1961 novel, whose central concern is the moral responsibility of a person whose public actions appear to contradict private beliefs.

• Vonnegut makes a brief cameo as a sad man encountered on a New York street. His appearance is one of the film's small links between the author and the adaptation.

• Howard W. Campbell Jr. also appears in Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five, creating a connection between the two works that is not fully carried over into the film.

• The name Frank Wirtanen came from a real man who sold Christmas trees to the Vonnegut family.

• While hiding with Resi and George, Campbell repeats the line "In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart," echoing Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl.

• The film premiered at the Montreal Film Festival on August 14, 1996, before its U.S. theatrical release on November 1, 1996.

• Keith Gordon reportedly took a small role in I Love Trouble to help get the script in front of Nick Nolte, whose representatives initially viewed the project as too small.