Directed by Henry Hathaway
Screenplay by Casey Robinson & Liam O’Brien
Based on Sinister Errand by Peter Cheyney
With: Tyrone Power as Mike Kells, a diplomatic courier, a “mailman” for the State Department in Allied occupied post World War II Europe.
Patricia Neal as Joan Ross, beautiful American widow wondering Europe on a whim.
Stephen McNally as Col. Mark Cagle, Army C.I.D., Hildegard Knef as Janine Betki, beautiful double agent.
(OK, let’s pause right here. If you do not recognize the names of the supporting actors below, or come to think of it, the four in the named cast above, stop reading because this is not your kind of movie. You best stick to comic book superhero movies, or Tarantino recycles, Kevin Costner westerns and the like.)
Karl Malden as Sgt. Ernie Guelvada, Charles Bronson as a KGB agent, Lee Marvin as an M.P., Michael Ansara, a KGB agent. E. G. Marshall, an MP, Dabbs Greer, an Intelligence Clerk.
Mike Kells is basically a letter carrier for Foggy Bottom who is thrown into the wilderness of mirrors world of espionage in the early years of the Cold War. He’s never read a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim or Eric Ambler so has no idea what to expect. Sidney Reilly, he ain’t. What he lacks in experience he makes up in determination. Some men are born spies, and some men have espionage thrust upon them
The MacGuffin here is the Soviet plans for the invasion of Yugoslavia, Tito was just a little too independent minded to suit Stalin, who was known to be very crabby at times. He already has East Germany, Poland and most of Eastern Europe so just wants to add to his collection. Kells is tasked to take the plans to Washington.
Another diplomatic courier, an old navy buddy of Kells (in point of fact, actor Tyrone Power was a Marine Corps pilot in the Pacific theater while the Duke fought the war on the silver screen) is killed by the Reds before he can hand off the MacGuffin, leaving him in a pickle. Which of the dames is the real deal and which is a Commie Rat; the American with the sexy voice, or the Czech tomata that reminds me of Alida Valli in The Third Man. Which will help him, stab him in the back, or both. Yeah, it’s that kind of story.
The film is a little rough in the beginning but soon picks-up due to Lucien Ballard’s cinematography and the dialogue setting the perfect noir atmosphere. Power has never been better, and Patricia Neal and Hildegard Knef keep him and us guessing right up to the end. Director Henry Hathaway (Kiss of Death) keeps it suspenseful.
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