Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

grainstorms 1948's Walk a Crooked Mile bursts out of the stale post-war semi-documentary format to become an absorbing espionage drama, thanks to: *Carefully rationed, no-nonsense writing (screenplay by George Bruce; story by longtime veteran Bertram Milhauser (over 60 film treatments in 50 years!); *Sharp and spare direction (by the versatile Gordon Douglas - said to be the only person to direct both Elvis and Sinatra). Filming took less than a month; * Watchful camera (cinematography by George Robinson), and enchanting location work in the beautiful San Francisco of nearly three-quarters of a century ago; * Unobtrusive acting by leads Dennis O'Keefe as an FBI agent and Louis Heyward as his Scotland Yard counterpart; * Enough angles and twists to keep you guessing to the very last frame; *And shrewd bit-casting (with an unexpected throat-catching moment lasting less than 20 seconds that you will remember for a long time , from veteran ...and uncredited... actress Tamara Shane - Moma Yoelson in The Jolson Story (1946) and Jolson Sings Again (1949) and Mrs Akim Tamiroff in real life -- as The Landlady). All this cinematic professionalism produces so much edge and vitality that a virtually unheralded, almost forgotten 1948 Cold War Feds 'n Reds potboiler is transformed into a surprisingly compelling action movie, complete with smart detective work, a rats' nest of sneering villains (look for a hirsute, almost svelte and quite nasty Raymond Burr), unexpectedly tense car chases and really noisy Thompson sub-machine guns. The crafty script doesn't pull at its leash, begging for attention, but instead remains in the background, a steadily ticking clock mechanism -- or perhaps a time bomb -- pushing the nail-biting action forward, with twists and turns at every corner.Using the documentary style format complete with the stentorian baritone of Reed Hadley, indispensable voice-of-God in the "official" crime dramas of the time, this Columbia Pictures black-and-white feature zeroes in on one of the most disquieting aspects of the Cold War: theft of nuclear secrets.Atomic plants worry about two kinds of leak: radiation and security. In the fictional Southern California research lab of Walk A Crooked Mile, it's a security leak that has the FBI's Geiger Counters ticking away madly. Vital secrets are being stolen by an unnamed foreign power. (Soviet Russia is never named, but there are plenty of "comrades" and "dictatorship of the proletariat" speeches bandied around by un-American conspirators as to leave no question just which Pravda-subscribing Great Bear is after our Atomic Honey. Besides, villain Raymond Burr is wearing a goatee just like Lenin's!)Because of the international ramifications of the thievery, the FBI (Dennis O'Keefe) and Scotland Yard (Louis Hayward) join forces to try and catch the red crooks. Unique among FBI films of the period, the "Chief" is never seen or heard: J. Edgar Hoover is never even mentioned! Indeed, the producer, Edward Small, had had no cooperation from the agency, and Director Hoover had even written a letter to the New York Times complaining that the movie had not been sanctioned by the Bureau. (Reportedly, Walk a Crooked Mile had been originally titled FBI vs Scotland Yard but this was changed at Mr. Hoover's request.)Despite this official hands-off policy, there is an air of authenticity about the proceedings as the sleuths employ the latest technology in an attempt to uncover the spy ring. The technology may seem to be on a kids' chemistry set level to our sophisticated eyes three-quarters of a century later, but the agents from the FBI and Scotland Yard use their brains as well - and this display of sharp wits is a nice change from the robotic by-the-numbers G-Man tales of the time. And lots of unexpected curves along this crooked mile keep you guessing for every minute of a wild ride.A good spy thriller, with astute detective work neatly balanced by the occasional bout of violent action.

classicsoncall It occurred to me while watching this picture that if made just a few years earlier, it could have served well as a Sherlock Holmes film. A couple that come immediately to mind are "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" and "Sherlock Holmes in Washington". The difference though, in the case of "Walk a Crooked Mile", is the presence of those nasty Russian Commies in the place of Nazi agents. The opening screen narrative pays tribute to those federal agents who defend the country against saboteurs and no-goodniks who would 'walk a crooked mile' to do their dirty deeds.The story is tightly scripted with a number of twists and turns while teaming FBI Agent Dan O'Hara (Denis O'Keefe) with Scotland Yard counterpart Philip Grayson (Louis Hayward). O'Hara takes it upon himself to nickname Grayson 'Scotty' in service to his employer, I thought that was a rather nifty touch. The action takes place in Southern California and involves smuggling newly defined mathematical formulas out of the country by way of concealing them in artwork of San Francisco cityscapes. The intrigue involved in making this discovery was cleverly done, and though it occurs rather quickly for the sake of the story, one has to wonder about the number of man hours involved in the undercover work required to break a case like this.Just as in the Holmes films, proper devotion to the cause of patriotism on both sides of the Atlantic is displayed, but not in a way one might think and not via any of the principals. At one point, Grayson's landlady (Tamara Shayne) is roughed up, shot and killed by low-life Commie Krebs (an austere Raymond Burr), and with her dying breath, extols the virtue of a country that did so much for her. Grayson and O'Hara were suitably impressed.The film showed up on one of the cable channels in my area, featured as part of a noir film lineup, but for my money it more closely resembled an espionage thriller. It's got noir elements certainly, and if you want to consider Louise Albritton's role in the picture as your basic femme fatale, it would have worked, but she was eventually exonerated as part of the research lab team that included the traitors working for the Communists. I had to control my disdain for the character of Dr. Allen (Charles Evans) at the finale, one of the bad guys who disingenuously asserted his Constitutional rights when his treasonous role was discovered. Sounds kind of familiar when applied to present day, doesn't it?

mark.waltz The world has shown evidence that the fight against Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito did not leave us in a better place in fighting for freedom as we headed into the late 1940's. In fact, evidence showed that we had to fight harder for it, both in front of the scenes and behind the scenes, as if you were even suspected of being communist, you were subject to having every move you made traced. The F.B.I. was everywhere that worries about communism creeping in to democracy, and in this film, they join forces with Scotland Yard to keep those dirty reds from infiltrating the government. Lakeview California is the focus of the three settings where this film takes place where nuclear military secrets are being stolen, shown when an agent is shot point blank while at a boxing match just as he is about to reveal about what he knows going on behind the scenes of the nuclear factory located there.Evidence takes FBI agent Dennis O'Keefe to San Francisco where he is joined by Scotland Yard agent Louis Hayward in tracking down the killer who is quickly dispatched there. So now they are on the hunt for the killer of a killer, with enemy agents revealing that in order to achieve their goals, they must face the facts that if their cover is blown, they too will suffer the same fate as the first killer received. "I'm an American!", one suspect reveals, to which he is told, "Yes, so was another American. His name was Benedict Arnold." But are who they suspect of the scientists working at the factory actual traitors? One of them is the attractive Louise Albritton, and indeed, she is seen dropping off information at a laundry where one of the men seen at a meeting of the spies works.This is not up there with anti-Communist propaganda films such as "The Red Menace", "I Married a Communist" or John Wayne's big-time fiasco, "Big Jim McLain", more of an anti crime story where the subject simply happens to be spies trying to gain important military secrets. With typical film noir narration, it moves along at a brisk speed, particularly tense during a sequence in San Francisco where the agents break into the suspected second killer's apartment and utilize all sorts of FBI gadgets to obtain the information they require to nail him and his co-horts. It gets more tense as it moves to Los Angeles and back to Lakewood where the plot wraps up heatedly with a race to stop the villains from getting the pivotal information into the wrong hands.One of those hands is Raymond Burr, typecast during the late 40's and 50's as a film noir villain. You can tell he's a villain here because even his beard is villainous. Reed Hadley made a career out of narrating crime films, and he is the glue which keeps this together and interesting. A scene on the highway where the villains shoot at one of the good guys is extremely intense and rather nail-biting. This isn't a great movie by any means, but an entertaining and thrilling espionage drama with a film noir structure to keep it moving, and one that subtly reminded movie audiences of the late 40's that freedom didn't come without a price.

bsmith5552 Prior to and during the Second World War, Hollywood was preoccupied with the Nazis infiltrating American industry and stealing secrets. Following the war, the focus shifted to the threat of communism."Walk a Crooked Mile" was one of the first, if not the first Hollywood film to deal with the so-called "red menace". Produced by Edward Small and directed by Gordon Douglas, the film is presented in a docu-drama style complete with voice over narration (by Reed Hadley). You could call it a film-noir but although it contains many elements of that genre, it is really more of spy mystery.Atomic secrets are being stolen and smuggled out of the country by communist interests from the Atomic plant at Lakeview, California. Secret formulas are turning up embedded in paintings abroad. One such painting turns up in Great Britain and Scotland Yard sends Inspector "Scotty" Grayson (Louis Hayward) to America to work with the FBI to ferret out the spies, where the FBI team is headed up by Agent Daniel O'Hara (Dennis O'Keefe).After an FBI agent is murdered, O'Hara and Grayson discover foreign agent Anton Radcheck (Philip Van Zandt) might be involved. After Radcheck is murdered they learn that the artist painting the suspect pictures is foreign agent Igor Braun (Onslow Stevens). Because the secret formulas are turning up "hot off the press" as it were, the boys deduce that there must me a mole planted within the atomic plant.The suspects include the Board members of the plant headed by Dr. Townsend (Art Baker). The others include the alluring Dr. Toni Neva (Louise Allbritton), ex German scientist Dr. von Stolb (Carl Esmond), Dr. Forrest (Lowell Gilmore) and Dr. Allen (Charles Evans).After a working over by the brutish Krebbs (Raymond Burr) the boys escape and are able unmask the internal spy.Although the foreign interest isn't named, we can deduce from the names of the villains that the U.S.S.R. was the likely culprit.Dennis O'Keefe had just appeared in two excellent films directed by Anthony Mann, "T-Men (1947)" and "Raw Deal (1948)" and was the real star of this film. Hayward, in my opinion, was not convincing enough as the Scotland Yard detective. He was more at home as a swashbuckler. Since there is no "femme fatale" love interest, Louise Allbritton is sadly wasted as a scientist. A slim Raymond Burr though, turns in another of his many pre-Perry Mason brutal villain roles."Walk a Crooked Mile" would signal the beginning of Hollywood's anti-communist era.