Walk East on Beacon! (1952)

Directed by Alfred Werker; produced by Louis de Rochemont

An on-going inquiry by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, leads to some known Soviet intelligence agents. This development suggests that their target is a very important research programme, significant for the future construction of all weapons. The FBI mobilise not only to stop the possible loss of vital information, but to round up the entire Soviet spy-ring.

Walk East on Beacon! is a rather lackluster Cold War espionage movie. The limited talent involved may be guessed by the fact that though there are five writers credited (including J Edgar Hoover, who penned the original article which inspired the story, and three others who are listed as providing ‘additional writing’), nothing very exciting or original is found in the movie’s 98 minutes, though there are some interesting moments.

The film may be seen as a propaganda piece for the FBI, and was no doubt intended so. (The higher-ranking FBI officers all have portraits of Hoover in their rooms; they are not as large as the portraits of Stalin the Russians have in theirs, but the parallel was enough to be amusing.)

The Bureau men all seem to be cut from the same cloth – in one scene, literally: as a conference breaks up the viewer sees that the participants all appear to be wearing very similar suits, like a uniform. Their characters are hardly distinctive from one another and, though they make mistakes (eg. failing to follow a suspect because, being dressed like a Catholic priest, he was believed to be one), the government operation is smooth, professional and powerful.

Rather strangely, the better-defined characters are those of the FBI’s antagonists. Karel Stepanek portrays a Soviet intelligence general, cold and ruthless – though, in truth, not much different than his real-life counterparts. Yet Stepanek, a competent actor, shows his character’s traits in small ways, such as the briefest indication of admiration for a comrade’s security measures. Bruno Wick, playing that comrade, gives a good depiction of what was likely the feelings of a long-time agent-in-place for the critical ‘headquarters man’.

Louisa Horton has the rôle of a leading Communist agent, unconsciously highlighting the prominence women sometimes had in Soviet intelligence (at least when serving in countries outside the Communist bloc) as opposed to the all-male world of the FBI. George Roy Hill, later much better known as a director, plays her husband.

The plot itself is straightforward. Though doubtless incorporating a substantial amount of fact, it is presented rather dully. The inevitable actionful climax comes across as artificial, like the insertion of obscenities or nudity in a 1960s film, meant to garner a coveted ‘R’ rating.

There is little to appeal to the viewer in Walk East on Beacon! The minimal interest generated by some of the characters – more a credit to the actors than the writers - doesn’t lift the movie above the pedestrian.