Walk East on Beacon! 1952

MOST THRILLING PICTURE SINCE "HOUSE ON 92ND STREET"!

5.0 / 10   16 vote(s)
NR
Drama

An FBI agent works with a refugee scientist and the Coast Guard to crack a Soviet spy ring in Boston.

Release Date 1952-06-01
Runtime 1h 38m
Directors Alfred L. Werker, Joseph C. Brun, Shirlee Weingarten, Jack Shaindlin
Producers Louis De Rochemont, Borden Mace, Lothar Wolff
Writers Leo Rosten, Leo Rosten, J. Edgar Hoover

Were it not for the oppressive and seriously condescending narrative this might have been quite a decent little fifth-columnist drama. Karel Stepanek is "Laschenko", the communist mastermind behind a plot to force renowned scientist "Prof. Kafer" (a very unlikely Finlay Currie) to reveal some top secret data about a project he is working on. The remainder of the plot is presented almost like a Q and A. The characters pose the questions and the infallible GI men have all the answers, they have all the state of the art kit (some on which looked like it had been drawn at kindergarten) and they also appear to have more manpower than the entire population of Boston, where this is based. Sadly, there is not the slightest jeopardy with this FBI propaganda piece - they even refer to John Edgar Hoover at the end, is if to humanise the man. Stepanek was also reliable as the baddie but the rest of the cast - and the film - are entirely forgettable.

CinemaSerf