The Iron Curtain (1948)

A Russian cipher clerk (Dana Andrews) for the Soviet Embassy in Canada and his wife (Gene Tierney, wasted in the dreary wife role) are content with their life in the West. When he and his family are ordered back to Moscow, he must make a life altering decision. Based on the actual case of Igor Gouzenko, a defector from the Soviet Union, whose exposure of the Soviet spy system and infiltration of secret agents into Canada made headlines. The film stays fairly close to the facts and attempts a faux documentary style but takes great dramatic license to make the film more of a thriller. Though based on reality, the film weakens its premise by having all the Russians (except for Andrews and Tierney) played so villainously that the actors practically hiss their lines and if they had moustaches, no doubt they'd twirl them! Surely, the Russians (even spies) were more subtle than that! Directed by the almost always engaging William A. Wellman (HIGH AND THE MIGHTY) for whom this must have been strictly a paycheck movie. For his score, Alfred Newman adapted the music of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Miaskovsky. With June Havoc as a slinky Soviet agent, Edna Best, Eduard Franz and Berry Kroeger.