State Department: File 649

You wouldn't expect a cold war drama with a title like that to be in colour, but here it is. (Soviet propaganda films of the period were also often in colour believe it or not.) Art director Edward Jewell also otherwise manages to suggest fairly lavish production values on a limited budget and the film was presumably waved through by the Breen Office as being politically useful in the grim new postwar climate (people get their tongues cut out and arms cut off - mercifully off camera - presumably to remind audiences just how dangerous the world still was outside the good old U. S. of A.)

Unfortunately, for all it's up to the minute, Torn-from-Today's-Headlines veneer Russia exploded its first atom bomb and China fell to the communists within months of the film's release in early 1949, rendering its storyline about a dastardly Chinese warlord even more irrelevant to current events; and it fell through a fissure in history that makes it interesting today for so precisely preserving a moment of faltering uncertainty and indecision as the tectonic plates of the United States' relations with the East began shifting in ways that still haven't settled yet.

This film highlights the complete ignorance of both Hollywood and the State Department when it came to analyzing events in both China and Mongolia in 1949.

Initially, the US sided with Chiang Kai-Shek and the Chinese Nationalists at the start of the Chinese Civil War with the Chinese Communists and Mao. The KMT controlled the cities, and the CCP controlled all the areas outside of the cities.

Mongolia was taken back from Japan by China in 1945, but since it was far away from any major Chinese city, it inevitably fell into CCP hands. The actors give it their best, but no one could rescue the poor production values, the preposterous script, and the corny dialogue that composed this turkey. Better to spend some time on YouTube and research the actual events of the Chinese Civil War.

"State Department: File 649" is a film that is supposedly set in China. The film bebuted in February, 1949...and by October of the same year, the country had fallen to Mao and the Chinese Communists. This means that only a few months after the film was released, it was already obsolete.

As far as the film goes, it was produced by Sam Neufeld. This means that even with Cinecolor, the movie is a cheap affair--with none of the polish you'd find in a film from a major studio. Neufeld was known for cheap B-movies...and this one is as cheap as they come!

Something is up in China. The local American Consul knows something isn't right...but isn't exactly sure what. So, agent 649, Ken Seely (William Lundigan), is sent to Peking (before it was renamed Beijing) to investigate. Like Batman, Ken's parents were murdered long ago--though this was in Mongolia, not Gotham City.

So is this any good? No especially. Lundigan has little charisma and the quality of the production isn't great--with some sloppy edits and little to make it stand out in a positive way. Now I am not saying it's bad....just that it isn't very good. At best, an odd time-passer.

By the way, the copy I saw of this film was posted on one of the Roku channels. The copy they have is very poor--often extremely dark and grainy. This combined with the general shabbiness of the story make it a tough film for most viewers to watch and enjoy.

Bill Lundgren is forced to be the "army, navy, and marines" all rolled into one as he infiltrates the underground in communist China.

After learning how to be a good spy, Lundy literally bumps into pretty Virginia Bruce, whom also is a trainee in Washington. Our heroes part, but re-emerge in one another's company when serving in Peking. Frank Ferguson tags along as Lundy's boss. Fine veteran actor Joe Crehan plays a U.S. government official.

Fun at the start with some interesting narrative background concerning the Department of State, though things slow down a bit as the film progresses to the eastern hemisphere.

Worth a look as a period piece from the prime of the Cold War.

William Lundigan is appointed to the Foreign Service. Because his parents were missionaries in Mongolia, he speaks the language and is quickly assigned to a listening post in Inner Mongolia. Soon after he arrives, however, renegades warlord Richard Loo siezes the town and the consulate in his plan to establish his independent principality.

It's a very old-fashioned movie directed by Sam Newfield, now gone from the remnants of PRC, but still chugging along with his brother Sigmund Neufeld as producer. This one is even a color production, although it's shot in Cinecolor and the print I looked at was dark and the color values a bit faded.

There's no direct mention of current events in China; the Civil War was proceeding apace and eight months after this movie was released, the National government would be expelled from the mainland. In the meantime, several talented but out-of-favor performers try to make the lines sound good, actors like virginia Bruce, Jonathan Hale and Philip Ahn; and the easily recognized Iverson ranch pretends to be Inner Mongolia.