From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1952 film by Alfred L. Werker
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
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
- 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
[
edit
]
- Fawcett
Motion Picture Comics #113 (November 1952)
[3]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]