La grande minaccia

Walk a Crooked Mile was filmed almost entirely on location. FBI agent Dan O'Hara (Dennis O'Keefe) and Scotland Yard operative Philip Grayson (Louis Hayward) team up to investigate a security leak at a Southern California atomic plant. The investigation takes place in San Francisco, where a communist spy ring flourishes. Actors as Raymond Burr and Philip Van Zandt play the communist agents.

The documentary technique gives a factual gloss to the melodramatic format. Action moves back and forth between San Francisco and the atomic plant in southern California. Gordon Douglas' knowledgeable directing keeps the film moving forward. He manages to build suspense through misdirection. The method used to take information out of the atomic plant is well protected thus keeping you guessing.

The movie is typical 40s and early 50s film noir.

Well-made political thriller. 1948 is the year Hollywood joined the anti-communist crusade, and there's no mistaking the bad guys-- Raymond Burr in a Lenin-like goatee, a sinister gathering of "comrades", and Hollywood's version of commie rhetoric about how the individual doesn't matter in the global scheme of things. Up to that point, the studios had been turning out generally pro-Soviet films in behalf of our WWII allies. But now, turning on a dime, we find out what perfidious characters we had been supporting. Oh well, as they say, in politics there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests.

Square-jawed Dennis O'Keefe makes for a dogged and intrepid FBI agent aided by Scotland Yard loan-out Louis Hayward. Together, they show what sterling fellows the English-speaking world turns out. They're on the trail of a covert Soviet spy sneaking out secrets from what is likely a bomb designing laboratory, though it's never specified. The plot rather prophetically anticipates the Klaus Fuchs affair of 1949, when the German-born spy was exposed as smuggling A-bomb secrets to the Soviets as early as 1945.

The suspense revolves around who the lab spy is and how he's getting the secrets out. It makes for entertaining, if workman-like, viewing. The familiar narrator Reed Hadley lends stentorian authority, along with some fine location photography. Together they impart a sense of reality to what are otherwise standard stereotypes and a melodramatic plot. Sure it's Hollywood's manipulative brand of political cinema, this time turned on our former friends. But at least it's watchable, minus the kind of cold-war hysteria that came to characterize other efforts of the period. All in all, an interesting and revealing reflection of its time.

A communist spy ring infiltrates the top secret Lakeview Laboratory of Nuclear Physics. Dedicated FBI agent Daniel F. O'Hara works late into the night. He receives a call from fellow agent Jimmy Colton who is murdered before he could reveal his info about Lakeview. He is joined by Philip 'Scotty' Grayson from Scotland Yard in the investigation.

It's a G-man noir, standard police procedural. They're all in spiffy suit and tie and wearing their hats. They talk in that hardened police tone. It has the police narration. The plot is a straight investigation with the standard twists and turns. The story is ripped from the headlines. It's a well-made police noir.

A 1948 film noir/police procedural. We're in the midst of the Cold War & American agents are on the hunt for Communist operatives which sets the scene as one of ours sees a wanted agent at a sporting event only to be gunned down (shocking for the time I would imagine as we see blood spatter across the man's face) by Raymond Burr (sporting a very Leninesque goatee). Enter the lead FBI agent, played by Dennis O'Keefe, who tracks the spotted man to San Francisco only to find the man murdered in his room even though the FBI were all over him. When they scour their surveillance footage they come up w/another enemy agent, disguised as a priest (which raised no flags), who spends his days in his apartment painting canvases which O'Keefe figures is the means of transporting information. Enter Louis Hayward, a Scotland Yard agent working the same case from the European side of things & he teams up w/O'Keefe to track down the cabal of enemy agents (the info in question is coming from a scientific collective on the cusp of a breakthrough) when they figure out hidden formulas are embedded on the paintings themselves, they figure one of the group is leaking the info. Very procedural in the extreme (I wouldn't be surprised if some would viewers will drop in the ubiquitous "dun dun" from Law & Order as each scene cuts into the next) but immensely engrossing, keeping you on the edge of your seat w/a satisfying gunfight taking place in a darkened home festooned w/Russia's best trying to win the day.

Dennis O'Keefe, (Daniel O'Hara) plays the role as a FBI Agent who is in charge of finding out how a Southern California atomic plant is having leaks of top secret plans and why one of their agents is killed trying to find out this important information. Scotty Grayson, (Louis Hayward) is a Scotland Yard Inspector who is also called into the FBI office and is working with Daniel O'Hara because he has some important information that can help to solve this case. Raymond Burr, (Krebs) plays the role as a communist who is a very dangerous man who will stop anyone trying to upset their plan to obtain this secret information. This picture is dealing with the Cold War period in history and the scientists in the atomic plant are all under investigation. This film is very entertaining and Dennis O'Keefe gave a great performance along with Raymond Burr just starting out his career and giving a great supporting role. Enjoy.