The world has shown evidence that the fight against Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito did not leave us in a better place in fighting for freedom as we headed into the late 1940's. In fact, evidence showed that we had to fight harder for it, both in front of the scenes and behind the scenes, as if you were even suspected of being communist, you were subject to having every move you made traced. The F.B.I. was everywhere that worries about communism creeping in to democracy, and in this film, they join forces with Scotland Yard to keep those dirty reds from infiltrating the government. Lakeview California is the focus of the three settings where this film takes place where nuclear military secrets are being stolen, shown when an agent is shot point blank while at a boxing match just as he is about to reveal about what he knows going on behind the scenes of the nuclear factory located there.
Evidence takes FBI agent Dennis O'Keefe to San Francisco where he is joined by Scotland Yard agent Louis Hayward in tracking down the killer who is quickly dispatched there. So now they are on the hunt for the killer of a killer, with enemy agents revealing that in order to achieve their goals, they must face the facts that if their cover is blown, they too will suffer the same fate as the first killer received. "I'm an American!", one suspect reveals, to which he is told, "Yes, so was another American. His name was Benedict Arnold." But are who they suspect of the scientists working at the factory actual traitors? One of them is the attractive Louise Albritton, and indeed, she is seen dropping off information at a laundry where one of the men seen at a meeting of the spies works.
This is not up there with anti-Communist propaganda films such as "The Red Menace", "I Married a Communist" or John Wayne's big-time fiasco, "Big Jim McLain", more of an anti crime story where the subject simply happens to be spies trying to gain important military secrets. With typical film noir narration, it moves along at a brisk speed, particularly tense during a sequence in San Francisco where the agents break into the suspected second killer's apartment and utilize all sorts of FBI gadgets to obtain the information they require to nail him and his co-horts. It gets more tense as it moves to Los Angeles and back to Lakewood where the plot wraps up heatedly with a race to stop the villains from getting the pivotal information into the wrong hands.
One of those hands is Raymond Burr, typecast during the late 40's and 50's as a film noir villain. You can tell he's a villain here because even his beard is villainous. Reed Hadley made a career out of narrating crime films, and he is the glue which keeps this together and interesting. A scene on the highway where the villains shoot at one of the good guys is extremely intense and rather nail-biting. This isn't a great movie by any means, but an entertaining and thrilling espionage drama with a film noir structure to keep it moving, and one that subtly reminded movie audiences of the late 40's that freedom didn't come without a price.
Evidence takes FBI agent Dennis O'Keefe to San Francisco where he is joined by Scotland Yard agent Louis Hayward in tracking down the killer who is quickly dispatched there. So now they are on the hunt for the killer of a killer, with enemy agents revealing that in order to achieve their goals, they must face the facts that if their cover is blown, they too will suffer the same fate as the first killer received. "I'm an American!", one suspect reveals, to which he is told, "Yes, so was another American. His name was Benedict Arnold." But are who they suspect of the scientists working at the factory actual traitors? One of them is the attractive Louise Albritton, and indeed, she is seen dropping off information at a laundry where one of the men seen at a meeting of the spies works.
This is not up there with anti-Communist propaganda films such as "The Red Menace", "I Married a Communist" or John Wayne's big-time fiasco, "Big Jim McLain", more of an anti crime story where the subject simply happens to be spies trying to gain important military secrets. With typical film noir narration, it moves along at a brisk speed, particularly tense during a sequence in San Francisco where the agents break into the suspected second killer's apartment and utilize all sorts of FBI gadgets to obtain the information they require to nail him and his co-horts. It gets more tense as it moves to Los Angeles and back to Lakewood where the plot wraps up heatedly with a race to stop the villains from getting the pivotal information into the wrong hands.
One of those hands is Raymond Burr, typecast during the late 40's and 50's as a film noir villain. You can tell he's a villain here because even his beard is villainous. Reed Hadley made a career out of narrating crime films, and he is the glue which keeps this together and interesting. A scene on the highway where the villains shoot at one of the good guys is extremely intense and rather nail-biting. This isn't a great movie by any means, but an entertaining and thrilling espionage drama with a film noir structure to keep it moving, and one that subtly reminded movie audiences of the late 40's that freedom didn't come without a price.