Culpado por Traição

This movie was a perfect example of good propaganda. With a blunt instrument, it assaults the viewer with the stark facts of the Soviet domination of Hungary. This is a movie that shows an appreciation of what was happening behind the "iron curtain", before it was known by that name . The most amazing truth revealed is that over 50 years later, the Catholic Church still preaches the same principles. It is eerie to put today's characters into the roles cast in the movie, but that is what the movie is about: that the Russians replaced the Nazis as the world's greatest oppressors. I also noted that the character who was accused of plagiarism considered it an honor, as long as the words he stole were worth stealing. This character had the most resemblance to a real person, and I suspect that the screenwriter put a little more of himself into that character. He may have felt that he was "plagiarizing" a lot of the popular sentiment behind this movie, using cliche phrases and such. Still, viewed as a historical piece of American culture, this movie tells the story of good vs. evil in the most realistic and straightforward way that I've ever seen in a Hollywood film. This is when Hollywood CARED about freedom and human rights, and knew that we were on the right side in that fight. Nowadays, Hollywood portrays Catholics as evil more often than not, and the USA as the tyrannical occupying oppressor, either directly or peripherally. There are so many levels to this movie, even if the acting wasn't the greatest. This is a classic cultural movie in that it expresses true political activism of it's day, even dabbling in feminism. I highly recommend this movie as an antidote for today's culture of Anti-Americanism, and Anti-Catholicism. If this movie were remade today, I would imagine that the Russian commander would find religion, and marry the Hungarian girl, while the Soviet Empire crumbled around them. That would be a romantic story with a happy ending, and be faithful to history, as this movie was. Too bad that today's Hollywood wouldn't touch that story with a 10 foot pole! This movie could have been more subtle, but it is powerful as historical propaganda. The message makes up for the lack in other areas, and there are even spots of greatness in the acting, writing, and shooting of this movie. Overall, it's an average period piece, but after knowing what we know now, it carries much more weight than it did originally.

Chris Leavitt, Lynbrook, NY

This film aptly portrays how the Russians and Americans tried to bore each other to death during the cold war.Unfortunately, this kind of anti-Russian propaganda is almost impossible to sit through. If you're not fond of Catholic priests, avoid like the plague. Even if you are, Charles Bickford's portrayal of a Hungarian man of God's refusal to toe the Kremlin line is bordering on the catatonic, as if they had already hypnotised him into submission before filming began; you'd have to be hypnotised to agree to filming a script this stodgy, this talky, where almost every dramatic opportunity is botched.Paul Kelly and Bonita Granville try to bring some life into it, but only Roland Winters, as the evil ever-smiling manipulator, seems to be having any fun. Recommend it to people you don't like.

The most interesting thing about this film is that it was actually made only two years after the "1984" trial of Cardinal Mindszenty, condemning him to life imprisonment after careful preparation by medicinal, psychological, mental and physical brainwash with drugs for weeks. The film makes the effort to get something of the whole picture of this universally outrageous miscarriage of justice, entirely organised by the Russians under Stalin during his worst and last years. It does not entirely succeed, but it manages to get a fair idea by entering subordinate parts, like a Russian officer in love with a Hungarian music school teacher, who is very patriotic, while he has to be loyal to his Russian communist party. The American journalist Tom Kelly plays the most important part, risking his life for getting at the truth of the fall of Hungary under the communists and ends up in hospital for his efforts. The film is very realistic, and although it is painfully reminiscent of a propaganda film, it actually sticks to the truth. There were innumerable propaganda films against Hitler and the nazi empire during the war, and this film is like a continuation of that fierce exposure of the cruelty of dictatorships, but instead of attacking Hitler it now attacks Stalin and quite boldly, showing that bureaucracy from the inside, like "The Iron Curtain" with Dana Andrews two years earlier, which also was a true story. This film does not really penetrate the Soviet procedure of brainwashing, it only hints at its main principles of operation, but it is appalling enough. The film is most memorable for Charles Bickford's entirely convincing and realistic rendering of the personality of Cardinal Mindszenty.

This movie came out 63 years before the release of "Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism," by Ronald Rychlak and Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa. The same points in this film which anti anti-communists and religious skeptics and bigots resent or deny have been more than confirmed by Pacepa's detailed and carefully constructed memoir. Pacepa, former acting chief of communist Romania's espionage service and senior person in the Soviet Union's "Dezinformatsiya" campaign, reveals what Communist disinformation accomplished and wrought. His account of Mindszenty's plight only substantiates the entire plot and dialogue of this movie. In fact, what we learn in this production is fact, as opposed to the highly fictionalized accounts of Che Guevara.

The Story of Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty (Charles Bickford), A Roman Catholic Cardinal from Hungary.

He Stood-Up Against the Oppression of Russian Communist.

Arrested and a Private Mock-Trial Ensued, He was Tortured and Forced to "Confess" that He was an "Enemy of the State".

One of the Most Gripping, Realistic Anti-Communist Films of the Era.

It Strikes a Balance of the Famous Plight of the Cardinal with a Personal Story of a Journalist (Paul Kelly), a Music Teacher (Bonita Granville), and a Russian Col. (Richard Derr).

The Film is Stylized in a Film-Noir Pastiche with Surreal Scenes of Interrogation and Torture that can Disturb, even Today.

Gut-Wrenching at Times, Punctuated with Tender Scenes that makes the Totalitarian Regime even More Brutal.

Visually Stunning, Well Acted "Propaganda" Piece that is Mostly True and the Facts Speak for Themselves.

What could be Considered "Embellishments" for Political Purposes is Not Because these Things Actually Did Occur.

Although Paul Kelly's Journalist Breaks the Fourth-Wall in the Final Shot, Looks Straight Into the Camera and "Calls to Arms" the Fight for Liberty...

It is the Only Time the Movie Separates Itself from the Gruesome Reality.