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Walk East on Beacon

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Walk East on Beacon!
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAlfred L. Werker
Written byLeo Rosten
Virginia Shaler
Laurence Heath
Emmett Murphy
Based onThe Crime of the Century by J. Edgar Hoover
Produced byLouis De Rochemont
StarringGeorge Murphy
Finlay Currie
Virginia Gilmore
CinematographyJoseph C. Brun
Edited byAngelo Ross
Music byJack Shaindlin
Louis Applebaum (uncredited)
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • April 29, 1952 (1952-04-29)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.35 million (US rentals)[1]

Walk East on Beacon is a 1952 American film noir drama film directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring George Murphy, Finlay Currie, and Virginia Gilmore. It was released by Columbia Pictures. The screenplay was inspired by a May 1951 Reader's Digest article by J. Edgar Hoover entitled "The Crime of the Century: The Case of the A-Bomb Spies." The article covers the meeting of German physicist and atomic spy Klaus Fuchs and American chemist Harry Gold as well as details of the Soviet espionage network in the United States. Gold's testimony would later lead to the case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for treason. The film substitutes real atomic spying with vague top secret scientific programs. Extensive location shooting was done in New England, around Washington Union Station and in FBI laboratories.

Plot

Federal agent Belden is assigned to locate the communist mastermind behind the leak, and to trace all avenues of informational access utilized by the Communists. Professor Albert Kafer is the space-weapons scientist who is being forced by the Russians into cooperating with them, as his son is under threat, while Alexi Laschenkov is the top Eastern-Bloc spy.[2]

Using state of the art technology, such as an early miniature video camera, and ingenious methods like a roomful of foreign language lip readers, the G-men crack the case and with the help of the US Coast Guard rescue the professor before he can be spirited away by submarine.

Cast

  • George Murphy as Inspector James 'Jim' Belden
  • Finlay Currie as Professor Albert Kafer
  • Virginia Gilmore as Millie / Teresa Zalenko
  • Karel Stepanek as Alexi Laschenkov / Gregory Anders
  • Louisa Horton as Mrs. Elaine Wilben
  • Peter Capell as Chris Zalenko / Gino
  • Bruno Wick as Luther Danzig
  • Jack Manning as Melvin Foss / Vincent
  • Karl Weber as FBI Agent Charlie Reynolds
  • Robert A. Dunn as Dr. Wincott (as Rev. Robert Dunn)
  • Vilma Kurer as Mrs. Rita Foss
  • Michael Garrettas Michael Dorndoff / Frank Torrance
  • Lotte Palfi Andor as Mrs. Anna Kafer (as Lotte Palfi)
  • Ernest Graves as Robert Martin
  • Robert Carroll as Boldany
  • George Roy Hill as Nicholas Wilben
  • Helen Mitchell as one of the lip readers

Comic book adaption

  • Fawcett Motion Picture Comics #113 (November 1952)[3]

References

  1. ^ 'Top Box-Office Hits of 1952', Variety, January 7, 1953
  2. ^ "Walk East on Beacon (1952) - Alfred L. Werker | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie".
  3. ^ "Fawcett Motion Picture Comics #113". Grand Comics Database.
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