Walk A Crooked Mile (1948)

When a communist spy ring infiltrates a U.S. nuclear laboratory and steals important information, an FBI agent (Dennis O'Keefe) and a British Scotland Yard detective (Louis Hayward) joins forces to expose the traitors. Directed by Gordon Douglas (TONY ROME), this film is a good example of those "red nightmare" films prevalent in the late 1940s and early 1950s during the McCarthy era. In that sense, it's interesting from a historical point of view but as cinema, it's rather tiresome. Inexplicably, it's often referred to as film noir but instead it's a crime film with an attempt at a documentary style to make it seem more immediate (Reed Hadley's stentorian voice does the narration). The film could have used some style but Douglas's straightforward direction plods along while Hadley barks on about patriotism and the American way of life. The commies are right out of a 1930s gangster movie. With Raymond Burr, Louise Allbritton, Frank Ferguson, Art Baker, Tamara Shayne and Ray Teal.