The Whip Hand (1951)

Matt Corbin, a vacationing magazine writer, takes a fishing trip to Minnesota, and stumbles across a lake, near a ghost-town, where all the fish have mysteriously died. None of the locals ... See full summary »

Director:

William Cameron Menzies

Writers:

Roy Hamilton (story), George Bricker (screenplay),

Stars:

Carla Balenda, Elliott Reid, Edgar Barrier

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Carla Balenda	...	Janet Keller
Elliott Reid	...	Matt Corbin
Edgar Barrier	...	Dr. Edward Keller
Raymond Burr	...	Steve Loomis
Otto Waldis	...	Dr. Wilhelm Bucholtz
Michael Steele	...	Chick
Lurene Tuttle	...	Molly Loomis
Peter Brocco	...	Nate Garr
Lewis Martin	...	Peterson
Frank Darien	...	Luther Adams
Olive Carey	...	Mabel Turner
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bobby Watson	...	Adolf Hitler (scenes deleted)
William Yetter Jr.	...	German Sergeant (scenes deleted)
William Yetter Sr.	...	German Llieutenant (scenes deleted)

Storyline

Matt Corbin, a vacationing magazine writer, takes a fishing trip to Minnesota, and stumbles across a lake, near a ghost-town, where all the fish have mysteriously died. None of the locals care to talk about it but he learns that a group of former-Nazi's-turned-communist have purchased a lodge on an island, in the middle of the fish-killing lake, and have built some kind of laboratory. Never one to pass up a chance to sell a story to a magazine, Matt decides to investigate. His only ally is Janet Keller, the sister of the local doctor who has been caught up into whatever those Commie-Nazis are up to out there in their laboratory on an island lake. What they are up to, with Soviet financing, is the development of diseases to use in bacteriological warfare against the United States of America, starting in Minnesota.

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Plot Keywords:

laboratory | fishing | minnesota | island | writer | 

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Taglines:

DEATH-GERM PLOT MENACES MILLIONS! [all caps]

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller | War

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 October 1951 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Enemy Within

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was originally shot with the bad guys conducting the germ warfare experiments as Nazis (which is why many of the characters have German names). However, producer Howard Hughes had a change of heart and decided that Communists were more of a menace than crazed Nazi scientists (it was also the height of the McCarthy "Red Scare" era) and ordered extensive re-shooting, with the villains now becoming former Nazis but current Communists.

User Reviews

The Commies Are Polluting Our Streams

I hope that noted set designer William Cameron Menzies who occasionally did direct such classics as Things To Come, had Howard Hughes's check already clearing the bank before embarking on The Whip Hand. Such a film could only have come out of the paranoid years of the beginning of the Cold War. If Joe McCarthy could say there were 205 or 81 or 57 card carrying Communists in the State Department, than why couldn't the Red Menace takeover a town in the Land of a Thousand Lakes, Minnesota.

Magazine feature writer Elliott Reid gone to Minnesota for a fishing vacation goes to the town of Winnoga and finds all the fish in the lake are dead and most of the town gone. New people have arrived in the area and are very protective about their privacy. Of course Reid's reporter's instincts are aroused and pretty soon he's like Kevin McCarthy trying to get of the area before the Pod People get him.

Just like in Shack Out On 101 where the Communists have set up shop in a hash house near the atomic testing site, the Commies have set up in Minnesota. Reid's only friends are elderly Frank Darien and Carla Ballenda, the sister of one of the scientists working in a laboratory on an island in the middle of the lake.

From the fevered mind of Howard Hughes came this warning to the American movie-going public that not only do we have to worry about the Reds conducting germ warfare on Americans, but they're also polluting our streams. I'm sure the Sierra Club was grateful for this film.

Raymond Burr is one of the Communist thugs along with his sister Lurene Tuttle. Burr and Tuttle being the professionals they are play it completely straight.

All I can say is, WOW.