The Red Menace

"The Red Menace" is a super-cheap exposé on Communists in America who were working towards the destruction of the country back in 1949. None of the actors in this Republic B-movie are folks you'll recognize...which shows what confidence the studio had in this movie!

The film begins with a couple driving from California into Arizona. The lady, in particular, is very nervous and you learn via a LONG flashback what it's all about and why she's worried. Bill Jones (Robert Rockwell) is an angry WWII vet. His bitterness attracts the attention of a Communist recruiter who gets him hooked up with folks who seduce him gradually into embracing Communism...and they use women to do this gentle 'guidance'. However, while Bill soon becomes a full-fledged Commie, some of the women working to convert him towards this system are beginning to have their doubts...particularly when they see how vicious their superiors are in dealing with dissent. Bill, too, begins to see how the Party is filled with jerks...folks who couldn't care less about truth or equality.

So is this film any good? Well, yes and no. As a history teacher, I must point out that there was a Communist Party USA and many of their tactics shown in the film are pretty realistic...despite how we tend to look on the Red Scare as almost comical today. This would especially be true of the Party just before WWII--when folks went from being lionized to demonized by them. But it also comes off as a bit over- earnest...a bit too trite as well---especially at the barf-inducing ending. Subtle, it sure isn't...but it is entertaining. So, despite low production values, it does keep your interest.

I noticed one review compared this to "Reefer Madness". Well, that's their opinion, but I felt "The Red Menace" had much, much better production values and isn't even close to being as schlocky as "Reefer Madness" or "Sex Madness" (by the same production company). This film is much slicker by comparison...though I gotta admit that speech at the INS office near the end of the film was amazingly over the top...and a bit reminiscent of the guy playing the piano in "Reefer Madness".

Most of the other reviews here fall into two groups: anti-communists like it, to one degree or another; pro-communists or anti-anti-communists hate it.

One, from a supposed relative of that excellent director, R. G. Springsteen, sneers at it, claiming the director called it his worst film. If Mr. Springsteen hated it, then he would not have done his best on it.

In fact, despite the actors not being well known, they -- most of them -- gave very good performances.

Nathan Scott, credited with the music, gets my respect for his use of "The Internationale" sprinkled suitably throughout the film.

The writers also did generally good work, though I have one hesitation: The leaders of the Communist Party, U. S. A., were shown to be very cynical, not very strong or honest believers in their party.

Some years ago, I worked at university radio station, and our manager, Tom Duval, was like that: He would go out to some individuals or groups to raise money, then come back and laugh at the suckers who gave.

But I can't help thinking members and leaders of the Communist Party were as sincere as members of other political parties -- even though the CPUSA was, in fact, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the CPUSSR, getting its orders and much of its money from Moscow.

(The CPUSA was, it is important to remember, also used for espionage and sabotage, as well, especially in Hollywood, to propagandize. Look at, for example, how its "keep out of the European conflict" changed, literally over night, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. Then the CPUSA was "this is a people's war and we need to fight.")

Some of the Hollywood people who joined the CPUSA, especially the ones who quit and who testified before the congressional committee, said the party seemed to offer solutions to such problems as poverty and unemployment.

In fact, just as did Al Capone, the CPUSA set up soup kitchens for the hungry.

Of course it intended to recruit members. And maybe that was a bit cynical. But advocates of even the most evil systems, including Nazism and communism, were probably as sincere, were probably true believers, as members of other parties and advocates of other causes.

Just not very clear-eyed.

Well, some want to make fun of the ending, of course, but I like it. It seems very Texan to me. At least for 1950.

"The Red Menace" must be viewed in the context of its times. If I were the president of Republic, I would make some changes, though relatively minor changes. As it is, I give it a recommendation, with that caveat: Remember the times, and that the Soviet Union and its alleged communist belief system was the imperialist enemy of these United States. And, in fact, of the peace and freedom of all Earth.

There is a too-dark print at YouTube.

And throw in a touch of "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and you've got the idea. The commies are using sex and booze to lure all-American boys to do ... just what isn't exactly clear, but the ultimate goal is to promote atheism and destroy freedom. Meanwhile, all they seem to be doing is killing their own members when not turning them in to the INS. An added treat for 50's TV fans is that the dimwitted hero is played by Robert Rockwell, who later portrayed Mr. Boynton, the suspiciously uninterested biology teacher eternally pursued by Eve Arden in "Our Miss Brooks"

OK, the acting, direction and production values are below average. But the writing is above average and that is why this film gets a 6. I have seen several commie movies from the fifties, and most of them have better production values. However, the scripts for these often entertaining films is usually the same; the commies are the bad guys and the American government officials are the good guys; a simple case of black and white. Unfortunately, most of the things in life are not simple black and white issues. There is no pancake so flat that it does not have two sides. Instead of using stereotypes with predictable plot development and a pat ending, this film, at least, avoided half of those shortcomings. It is an intelligent look at the motives of members of the communist party in the US. The characters are complex and realistic, not cartoonish black and white characters portrayed in the vast majority of red scare films of the fifties. Even though the film had a weak conclusion, the rest of the film was very entertaining.

World War Two vet Robert Rockwell finds himself rooked by lying land developers, and falls in with some communists, particularly pretty Hanna Axmann-Rezzori. Meanwhile, Shepherd Menken finds himself in trouble with the Party because a poem of his noted that Marx had historical antecedents.

It seems to be a rule of Hollywood movies that no pretty woman remains a communist when loved by a handsome leading man, and that's pretty much what happens here. Meanwhile, in ideology land, the multi-racial, tolerant views of the party begin to shred in the presence of individual thought and sympathy.

It's one of the many virulently anti-Communist movies made in Hollywood in this period in an effort to avoid losing the entire studio to the Blacklist -- just the highly priced writers and directors. The script by Albert Demond and Gerald Geraghty makes a play at intellectual fairness by noting the CPUSA work in unionization and civil rights. Having done that, it goes off the rails in a manner that Red Channels would approve of.