Sat 5 Jun 2010
Movie Review: THE 49th MAN (1953).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Suspense & espionage films[4] Comments
THE 49th MAN. Columbia Pictures, 1953. John Ireland, Richard Denning, Suzanne Dalbert, Robert Foulk, Mike “Touch” Connors, Richard Avonde, Peter Marshall, Geneviève Aumont. Director: Fred F. Sears.
A less than semi-scary story told in semi-documentary style, a cautionary tale told in the midst of the Cold War. A kid in a hot road crashes off a road in the Southwest US, setting off a nationwide hunt for 47 other parts of atom bombs being smuggled into the US, piece by piece.
Assigned to head up the investigation is John Williams (John Ireland), who reports to Richard Denning’s Paul Reagan back in Washington. Each of twelve bombs comes in four parts, one part per state. They come into the US by many different ways, and you’d be surprised how many of them are intercepted, mostly by chance, as far as I could tell.
This is the semi-scary part, and you could even convince me that it’s scary without the prefix semi. The trail leads Williams to Marseilles, France, and a jazz bar, where — I can’t tell you more. The case is solved far too easily, if you were to ask me, but there is a twist toward the end that I can’t tell you about either, and a finale which is really a blow up job, bar none.
Denning is as earnest in his role as usual, and Ireland, well, he’s as dour as he ever was. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him smile in a film he was in, but I’m probably wrong about that. What I’m probably right about is that you will find as little of major interest in this movie as I did. Minor interest yes, but nothing more.
June 5th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
The ‘twist’ and then the twist on the twist is probably the best part of this film.
Oddly enough this seems to have had nothing to do with Philip Wylie’s THE SMUGGLED ATOM BOMB, coincidence I suppose.
Ireland was a little less dour (more laconic) in Hawks RED RIVER, but his screen persona was usually pretty dark — though I do recall a BURKE’S LAW where he played a character suggested by Hugh Hefner. Likely one of his best roles was in Sam Fuller’s I SHOT JESSE JAMES where dour was pretty much justified.
However if you want to see him smile — admittedly sadistically — there’s always his Johnny Ringo in GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL.
June 5th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Responding to your first paragraph, David, you’re right. This is not a movie for you if you like to know exactly where a movie is going before you start watching it.
It does require some old-fashioned suspension of disbelief, however. While I have a good supply, it was stretched fairly thin by the time it was over. That first twist was a doozy, though. While I don’t think it was set up as fairly as it could have been, I sure didn’t see it coming.
I’ve now read some of the online reviews of the movie. There aren’t many — nor does there seem to be a commercial release for the film — but several I’ve seen blithely go ahead and blab away the entire story line.
I hate it when they do that. Are they really that inept?
Note that I changed that last word from two or three others I used, then changed my mind.
— Steve
June 5th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
The twist — at least the first one — seemed fairly absurd based on what happened before, and after that the next twist was the only way to ‘save’ the film. Not that it does.
But I do give them credit for trying. Most pictures like this wouldn’t have bothered.
If you recall I compared this to the British film SEVEN DAYS TO NOON, a sober, serious, and intelligent take on the same theme (domestic nuclear threat).
For a much better film on the general subject, and an excellent look at Los Alamos in the era right after the creation of the bomb see ATOMIC CITY with Gene Barry.
Barry plays a nuclear physicist in Los Alamos whose son is kidnapped by Reds — lots of good location work including the finale in the national park where the cliff dwelling Indians once lived not far from the National Lab.
Los Alamos has grown a lot since then, but you can still pick out many locations from the film.
June 5th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Re SEVEN DAYS TO NOON, here’s the link to David’s review:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1928
His brief mention of THE 49th MAN will probably give you more of an incentive to see the movie than my review did, so by all means go read it.
His review of SEVEN DAYS TO NOON is even more worth reading.