Walk East on Beacon!

Egomaniac, Hypocrite, and Big Brother J. Edgar Hoover's stain is all over this Red Scare Movie. Another McCarthy Era Propaganda Piece that the Government, in League with Hollywood, pushed on the Public in the early Post War Years. It is a Movie that is Cold and without Emotion, ironically just like the Commies.

Among its many Sins, one is the way it inaccurately equated the Russians with the Nazis for nothing more than analogous Angst. Did anyone remember that it was just a few short Years prior that Germany invaded Russia, and Russia invaded Germany. They hated each other. But in the World of Government Mind Control, that memory is wiped.

This is an interesting Artifact of the Time to be sure, and a reflection on the Temperament. As Entertainment it is so stilted that the whole thing barely has a Heartbeat although it tries, so seriously, to make its case that anything resembling a Human Being is lost in the Fog of the Cold War. If there's still any doubt about the Evil of Hoover and his Megalomania, check out all the dismembered Head Shots of J. Edgar floating about in quite a few of the office Scenes.

Worth a view for Cold War Historians and "Safety for Freedoms" researchers. It is a Movie masquerading as your Friend. Early on the Film mentions how in the USA Citizens go about their Daily Lives freely because of the Bill of Rights. That creepy, prying TV Camera in the Shop was just the beginning. A Harbinger for sure.

An hysterical anti-communist screed dolled up in the drag of a police procedural, Walk East On Beacon simply isn't up to the task of alerting us to the dangers of a Fifth Column in our midst. Well filmed but weedily written (and based on a magazine article by the Dark Prince of the F.B.I., J. Edgar Hoover), the film stars Republican senator-in-waiting George Murphy as a G-Man hot on the heels of a Red sleeper cell. Murphy was never much of an actor, and here he's strictly in Jack Webb just-the-facts-ma'am territory. Location photography in Boston gives the film a boost, but overall Walk East On Beacon! can't match either the red hot emotional power of Pickup On South Street or the creepy intensity of My Son John, two other Red Menace films of the period.

This is definitely not a "hysterical anti-communist screed" but a plodding 1950's manhunt story with Westbrook Van Vorhees as the narrator.It would be simple to ignore the ineffective demagoguery of Joe McCarthy as based on fiction, but the U.S.S.R. did aggressively spy on the U.S. and other allies during and after W.W.2 and its party organization and members were totally controlled by Moscow. This whole picture was shot on location but it lacks the punch of such other realistic films as CALLING NORTHSIDE 777, BOOMERANG, IRON CURTAIN etc.

Murphy wasn't much of an actor and comes off as bland as he was when the host of MGM PARADE.

WALK EAST ON BEACON! Is a thriller from 1952 that feels like it was made as a propaganda piece for the FBI. Hoover features in archive footage and from what we know about the communist witch hunts of the era it all feels more than a little queasy. The story involves the usual heroic troupe of FBI agents who are hunting for a sleeper cell of Russian agents working out of Boston. The cast are competent but the film sort of plods along at its own speed without ever truly engaging the senses or indeed the imagination. While it's nice to see a film not set in New York or Los Angeles for once, this really doesn't have all that much to offer.

This is a most conventional propaganda picture for the glory of the FBI with careful documentation of how expertly they handle their duties and get their commie villains. It is very similar in character to Henry Hathaway's "House on the 92nd Street", which though is a so much more interesting film for its characters, especially Signe Hssso. Here there are no characters except stereotypes.. The one character for which the film is worth seeing is Finlay Currie as the Russian scientist who gets into trouble, and his way of handling his very tricky path out of an immense abyss of trouble. It's not a bad film, but it is supremely superficial, varnished to 101% artificial perfection, but for Finlay Currie. who makes a great performance.