I Was A Communist For The FBI (1953)
Sept 3, 2018 5:37:56 GMT
vegalyra, mikef6, and 1 more like this
Post by mattgarth on Sept 3, 2018 5:37:56 GMT
Thanks for the thread, Mike -- interesting post. Hollywood was encouraged to make these films by Washington, just as they complied during the war years with rousing propaganda movies. But mostly the pictures were played for Noir melodrama. Adding a few more titles:
The first must have been THE IRON CURTAIN in 1948, based on a true story -- directed by William Wellman and starring Dana Andrews as a Russian cypher clerk working at the Russian Embassy in Canada during the war who defected in1945 and was the first to reveal the extent of Soviet espionage against their wartime allies in the West.
Then came THE RED MENACE and THE WOMAN ON PIER 13 the following year.
Perhaps the strangest was RED PLANET MARS in 1952 -- the same year as Duke Wayne and James Arness appeared in BIG JIM McLAIN, and starring Arness' brother Peter Graves. It was an offbeat blend of earth-warning Sci-Fi ('Keep watching the Skies!') and American warning of the Red scare ('Those dirty Commies!').
The first must have been THE IRON CURTAIN in 1948, based on a true story -- directed by William Wellman and starring Dana Andrews as a Russian cypher clerk working at the Russian Embassy in Canada during the war who defected in1945 and was the first to reveal the extent of Soviet espionage against their wartime allies in the West.
Then came THE RED MENACE and THE WOMAN ON PIER 13 the following year.
Perhaps the strangest was RED PLANET MARS in 1952 -- the same year as Duke Wayne and James Arness appeared in BIG JIM McLAIN, and starring Arness' brother Peter Graves. It was an offbeat blend of earth-warning Sci-Fi ('Keep watching the Skies!') and American warning of the Red scare ('Those dirty Commies!').