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.

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.

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.

WALK A CROOKED MILE is the sort of brisk, documentary style espionage yarn so often made during the '40s, using narration to tell the story of two espionage agents (DENNIS O'KEEFE and LOUIS HAYWARD) assigned to track down whomever is responsible for leaking top secret information developed at a nuclear plant in California.

Most of the action takes place in San Francisco, where O'Keefe and Hayward discover that an artist (ONSLOW STEVENS) is putting coded information beneath his paintings when he receives it from a spy working for the government agency. The story traces how the spy ring operates and it is these details that give the film added interest before the spies are caught. All of the methods must seem dated by today's standards of F.B.I. work, but the manner of presentation is gripping and the clever cat-and-mouse game that is played between the agents and the spies is credible and fascinating.

It's smoothly directed by Gordon Douglas at a fast clip. RAYMOND BURR has his usual "bad guy" role as one of he spies, and LOUISE ALLBRITTON, CARL ESMOND, ART BAKER and CHARLES EVANS all make interesting suspects in the mystery behind the identity of the key traitor.

Well worth viewing.

The film's stark and scrumptious cinematography is why you should watch. George Robinson and Edward Colman do an absolutely fantastic job. Noir fans will appreciate the film's use of shadows to create a tense mood.

The plot will hold your interest: with the help of a U. S. government worker(s) top secret atomic research work is being stolen by a communist spy ring. FBI agents, with the aid of Scotland Yard, work against time to stop the theft.

Louis Hayward plays the Scotland Yard agent and Dennis O'Keefe is his FBI counterpart. The two have chemistry together.

There is a blandness, though, to much of the crime investigation procedural part of the film - which is extensive. There's no love interest for any of the main characters. In fact, there's only one female character in the film and she doesn't have any substantial speaking lines until late in the movie.