A-Bomb In A Hotrod
Cold War paranoia reaches its heights in The 49th Man, an obvious bow to the British film, The 49th Parallel in title. Would that this film be half as good.
A kid tooling down a New Mexico highway crashes his hotrod in the desert and gets killed. There's a strange looking object in a lead case which the local sheriff brings to the attention of local FBI guy John Ireland who in turn brings it to Los Alamos on a hunch. I guess it was handy to have Los Alamos around. Anyway it turns out to be part of an atomic bomb.
With the assignment from his superior Richard Denning, Ireland goes on a manhunt which takes him across the USA and to Montreal and Marseilles. The depth of this Red conspiracy reaches into the United States Navy and beyond. But the FBI in peace and war does its thing.
Oddly enough with the development of nuclear technology and the well documented problems today of protecting our borders, The 49th Man does have a curious relevance for today. Still it is a prime example of McCarthyist paranoia at its heights.
A kid tooling down a New Mexico highway crashes his hotrod in the desert and gets killed. There's a strange looking object in a lead case which the local sheriff brings to the attention of local FBI guy John Ireland who in turn brings it to Los Alamos on a hunch. I guess it was handy to have Los Alamos around. Anyway it turns out to be part of an atomic bomb.
With the assignment from his superior Richard Denning, Ireland goes on a manhunt which takes him across the USA and to Montreal and Marseilles. The depth of this Red conspiracy reaches into the United States Navy and beyond. But the FBI in peace and war does its thing.
Oddly enough with the development of nuclear technology and the well documented problems today of protecting our borders, The 49th Man does have a curious relevance for today. Still it is a prime example of McCarthyist paranoia at its heights.
- bkoganbing
- 21 set 2008