The Whip Hand (1951) User Reviews

Corny but entertaining anti-commie film

[reve-2 · 7/10 · 27 May 2001]

This film was, obviously, made during the era when communists were considered to be the major threat to the security of the USA. If the viewer watches the film strictly to indulge in approximately 85 minutes of escapism it can provide some low key entertainment. The story moves pretty fast and never bogs down with any over-emphasis on character development or plot.

I had never seen this film prior to my viewing it on Turner Classic Movies. I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of Elliott Reed. I have seen him in several movies and, in all of the others, he portrays, basically, the same type of character, that is, a slightly officious mid level executive, a spurned suitor, etc. I really enjoyed seeing him, in this film, actually portray a romantic, leading man hero, type of character. Yes, this film is strictly fluff. But, it can provide enjoyment and, IMHO, is notable, for the casting of Mr. Reed as the "star".

Menzies to the rescue!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 13 December 2017]

You can always rely on William Cameron Menzies for striking visuals and tingling atmosphere. This fascinating little movie, "The Whip Hand", proves to be no exception -- even though the final revelation is actually rather disappointing.

Originally the film was made under the title The Man He Found, the "found man" being Adolf Hitler, not only living on but actually plotting postwar stratagems with the connivance of the citizenry of a small American town. But executive producer Howard Hughes thought that the Communists who were really active at the time not only presented a far greater menace than a vanquished Fascist, but would really intrigue American audiences. So the film was partly re-shot.

As it happened Hughes's hunch was wrong. The film lost money, even on its comparatively modest (at least for a competitive "A" feature) negative cost of only $376,000. It could even be argued that the climax is hardly worth all the build-up, but nonetheless, when the movie is directed and designed by the brilliant William Cameron Menzies, as far as I am concerned, it rates as a must-see item on any account.

"Keep your hands off them biscuits!"

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 17 November 2014]

Matt Corbin (Elliott Reid) is a magazine writer on a fishing trip in Winnoga, Minnesota. He discovers all the fish in the town's lake are dead and the locals are none too friendly. He starts nosing around and finds himself in the middle of a Communist plot to overthrow America with germ warfare. The original story for this had Nazis as the villains instead of Communists. But producer Howard Hughes felt Reds were more timely so the story was changed to Communists who used to be Nazis. Which is all kinds of hilarious if you think about it.

Elliott Reid, a fine character actor I've seen in tons of stuff, is an atypical lead but does a solid job. His big romantic scene is a pretty big fail, though. Frank Darien is fun as the elderly general store owner who tries to help Reid. Carla Balenda, no doubt given the female lead by Hughes, offers a bland and forgettable turn here. I don't think she changed facial expressions more than twice. Raymond Burr plays one of the Commies. He's the most famous actor in the movie. The rest of the cast is made up of lesser-known but quality actors, some of which classic movie fans might recognize (Lurene Tuttle, for one). Perhaps the most pleasant surprise about this movie is that it's directed by William Cameron Menzies, legendary production designer whose directorial efforts include Things to Come and Invaders from Mars. Menzies gives this movie a stylish direction lacking in most other '50s Red Scare flicks. The movie looks like a film noir, not a political thriller. It's a beautiful-looking black & white movie. Whether you take the story seriously or not, I don't see how you can deny it's a well-crafted film of its type. It's a reasonably suspenseful thriller with some style and some neat creepy moments late in the film.

Down with the Left!

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 24 May 2014]

THE WHIP HAND, an interesting curio of a film that's very much of its era, tells the story of a small rural town in the American South which finds itself at the mercy of a band of merciless Communists who'll do anything in their power to keep their plans for germ warfare a secret. Yes, welcome to the world of '50s paranoia and McCarthyist witch-hunts, where the ordinary-looking guy next door just might be a closet pinko.

The guy helming this little B-movie is William Camercon Menzies, responsible for the equally paranoia-laden INVADERS FROM MARS. And THE WHIP HAND turns out to be an entertaining little movie, one which thrives on building a sense of mistrust throughout as the crusading reporter hero gradually becomes aware of a sinister plot in darkest Minnesota. Cuddly bad guy Raymond Burr (REAR WINDOW), a go-to guy for '50s villainy, is inevitably one of the bad guys behind it all.

THE WHIP HAND is watchable and features an unfamiliar cast doing their best with the lines they're given. Sure, it's very much dated these days, but the same dating makes it interesting as a product of its era. The bad guys are far more interesting than the good, especially the well-defined characters like the pervy guy with the flat leather cap or the creepy gamekeeper. The decision to change said bad guys from Nazis to Communists at the last moment makes it all feel a little muddled, but it's certainly not a bad film and rewarding to those with an interest in film as a medium for social commentary.

An rarely shown film from William Cameron Menzies is not void of interest.

[youroldpaljim · 29 September 2001]

I was 12 years old when I first learned of this film from reading John Baxters chapter on William Cameron Menzies in his ground breaking book "Science Fiction in The Cinema.' The plot concerning germ warfare and Baxters praise of the film made me want to see it. I later learned from other sources that this film was made from a finished film called THE MAN HE FOUND, about Adolph Hitler being alive and well and living the USA. RKO studio heads did not like the film and ordered a new story written and new footage shot that would use as much footage from THE MAN HE FOUND as possible. This made me want to see it even more. But for years this film eluded me. It never showed up on TV, never shown as part of a Menzies retrospective and never turned up officially on video. It then turned up in the early 1990's late one night on TNT, where I taped it and have watched several times since.

While I found the film of some interest, I can certainly say Baxter over praised this film. Its not a bad cold war era espionage thriller, but other than the plot, its nothing special either. It is no doubt the least interesting of Menzies fantastic films that he both designed and directed. The court yard where infected guinea pigs wander around like zombies and Otto Waldis's lab are of some visual interest, but over all there isn't much of Menzies design genius evident. To comment on his direction is pointless, because Menzies was never a good director of actors. The reshooting and incorporating old scenes with the new scenes is done fairly well. I noticed where new scenes were inserted, but only because I was looking for them. Note that this film uses a lot of close ups. Otto Waldis as the former Nazi scientist, now working for Russian Communists is a bit hard to take. He praises his new adopted ideology. While its true Nazism and Communism have more in common then with western style democracy, most of the Nazi scientists who went to work for the Commies after the war did so more out of pragmatic and mercenary reasons than ideological ones.

Decent 50's thriller

[MattyGibbs · 7/10 · 31 January 2017]

A young reporter on vacation injuries himself and finds himself in a small town called Winnoga which seems to harbour a dark secret.

The Whip Hand is a suspenseful and taut thriller. There are plenty of colourful characters as a town full of fear are helped by a confident reporter who senses things are not as they seem. Elliott Reid is convincing as the reporter and Raymond Burr is quietly menacing as one of the conspirators.

The plot although featuring a sinister subject is fairly routine and predictable to today's audience but probably packed much more of a punch in the post war paranoid 1950's.

Although by no means a classic, this is a fairly enjoyable thriller and well worth watching at least once.

The un-holy Alliance

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 13 November 2014]

****SPOILERS**** The movie "The Whip Hand" was to be about a Nazi spy ring in the US planning to use biological and chemical, or WMD's as their known now, to wipe out the entire US population. But with the war, WWII, over it was decided by producer Howard Hughes to change the format and substitute the Nazis as Commies or even better yet Nazis who converted to Communism making them twice as evil. We the audience get the drift of what's going on in the movie with a speech by some Communist big-shot in the Kremlin speaking in Russian, without any subtitles, about the plan the Commies have to destroy America that's to originate out of the sleepy little Minnesota ghost town of Winnoga.

It's in Winnoga that our hero photojournalist Matt Corbin, Elliott Reid, is on vacation on a fishing trip and ends up getting his skull fractured while running for cover when a violent storm breaks out. Looking to get help Corbin runs into Dr.Edward Keller, Edgar Barrier, who together with his in house sister and part-time nurse Janet, Carla Balenda, treat his wound. It's not that long that Corbin decides to stay in town to check out the fishing which he finds out that the fish, or trout, have all died out from a mysterious virus some five years ago. It soon becomes apparent to Corbin that the Commies had landed and with their Nazi allies are planning to take over the United States by polluting it's water supply if nothing is done, by him, to stop them.

****SPOILERS**** With Janet, despite her brother working for the Commie/Nazis, joining him in his fight for America's survival Corbin starts to uncover a secret underground hideout that the Communists and their Nazi allies are using in them experimenting their secret weapons. That's toe used to turn the entire population of the US into an army of mind numb Zombies and tips off the FBI & CIA as well as the local authorities where it is. The entire operation is run by fugitive Nazi now Communist fanatic Dr. Wilhelm Bucholtz,Otto Waldis, who with the help of his Nazi friends and paid off US immigration officials claimed to be a holocaust survivor. It's the crazed but brilliant Dr. Bucholtz who like the Japaneses kamikazes of WWII is ready and willing to die for his cause world wide Communism and has already created an army of Zombies, who walk around aimlessly bumping into each other, to achieve that evil goal. It's Corbin who later breaks into Bucholtz's underground bunker and with the help of his just created Zombies puts an end to his wild crazy and hair-brained dreams. P.S Check out a graying and very rotund Raymond Burr as Steve Loomis one of Dr. Bucholtz's evil henchmen.

The Town That Ran Out of Fish

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 13 January 2022]

'Bad Day at Black Rock' meets 'Quatermass 2' in this gothic-looking RKO quickie directed by visionary production designer William Cameron Menzies and atmospherically photographed by veteran noir cameraman Nicholas Musuraca in which reporter Eliot Reid receives a frosty welcome in a decaying little hamlet straight out of Lovecraft.

Laurence Tuttle, later Sheriff Chambers' wife in 'Psycho' presciently plays a character called Molly Loomis.

Believe it or not, anti-Red thriller not too bad

[bmacv · 5/10 · 1 June 2001]

The anti-communist film was a malignant undergrowth to the noir cycle; there has probably never been such a clumsy or dispirited clump of films ever foisted on the public. Some of them, nonetheless, have their moments. The Whip Hand, directed by William Cameron Menzies, is one of these (possibly because it started as an anti-Nazi intrigue piece before then-RKO boss Howard Hughes decreed that the Commies would make better box-office in 1951, the high noon of McCarthyism). Journalist Matt Corbin (Elliott Reid) is on a solo fishing trip somewhere in northern Minnesota (probably not far from Jefty's Road House), when he conks his head. Seeking medical attention, he stumbles into a strange town where he's told to fish elsewhere, as a virus, or something, has wiped out all the fish. It's kind of like Bad Day at Black Rock, where a loner insists on solving a terrible secret despite the fact that the whole town is in on the conspiracy. He can't even get a message out, or, if he does.... A bearded Raymond Burr is an outwardly jovial innkeeper and the best actor in this curious film, which manages to generate some tension and suspense along the way.

One of the Quirkiest "Better Dead Than Red" Movies

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 19 November 2014]

This is One Odd Movie. Starting with the Title that is Meaningless Unless One Knows About a "Riding" Term Meaning the Upper Hand or Some Such Thing, Suffice to Say it is Meaningless. Add to That the Story was Changed Midstream from Nazis to Communist at the Insistence of Howard Hughes.

Still, Director Menzies Manages to Make the Thing Look Good, Despite Some Bad Acting that He Left Unattended. The Film Still Manages to Bring the Paranoia of the Time Front and Center with Bizarre Scenes and a Foreboding Atmosphere.

It Really Kicks In with the Third Act that Includes Mad Lab Scenes, Female Bondage, Zombie Like People Used as Guinea Pigs, and Some Communist Nut-Case Speeches. This is One of Quirkiest Entries in the Anti-Communist Movies Made During the McCarthy Era and that is Saying Something because Most of Them were Really Quirky.

The Commie Characters All Look Like Something Out of a Comic Book with Exaggerated Features and Props. They're One Scary Looking Bunch. The Protagonist and His Love Interest are So Sanitized and "Normal" Looking They Seem to have Stepped Out of a Disney Movie. The Contrast is Quite Startling and Add to the Surreal Nature of the Movie When Watched Today.

Enormous Letdown

[telegonus · 2/10 · 3 November 2001]

The man who directed and designed this film, William Cameron Menzies, was one of the great unheralded geniuses in the history of film. More than almost anyone he raised set and production design to the level of art; and his sets for the silent Fairbanks Thief Of Baghdad are still eye-popping. Menzies will probably be best-remembered as production designer of Gone With the Wind, a film he largely molded visually, and whose best scenes bear his unmistakable stamp. Alas, Menzies was never a good director, though his films are often interesting to look at. A good example is his 1953 Invaders From Mars. The Whip Hand, though, is just awful; dreadful script, poor acting, no pace; and it doesn't even have the Menzies 'look'. Yet as a period piece it is not without interest. It starts beautifully, in a studio-designed rustic setting (and the best set in the film); and then a rainstorm soaks a vacationing fisherman, who proceeds to go into the local town and ask for help in getting treatment for a head injury he sustained when he fell against a rock. The townfolk turn out to be even harder than the rock he hit his head against. They refuse to be more than perfunctorily friendly (with the exception of a superficially outgoing and jokey Raymond Burr), and are continually contradicting one another. It seems that there are strange doings on a lodge across the lake; and nocturnal visits to the lodge by the doctor, who doesn't want to talk about it. As things turn out, Communists have taken over this Minnesota town and turned it into a center for the study of germ warfare!

This movie could have been so good. I was rooting for it all the way; hoping against hope that it would get its act together and finally work,--dramatically, logically, thespically. But it never did. The heavy hand of Howard Hughes had a good deal to do with ruining what slight chance this movie had of being good, as it was originally supposed to be about Nazis, and he decided, as studio chief, that he knew better, so he ordered much of the film re-shot to make the villains Russian agents instead. I'm surprised he didn't put Jane Russell in it as well. Lang, Hitchcock or even Siodmak might have worked wonders with the material. Menzies himself might have done better had his employer showed better taste and judgment. The movie's worth seeing if only for the spectacle of gifted people making asses of themselves both in front of and behind the camera, as there are flashes of real talent here and there.

A town filled to the brim with Commie-Nazis!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 15 January 2017]

It's odd that I would give a propaganda film like this such a high score, but despite the odd plot the film IS very entertaining and tense and is still well worth seeing.

Matt Corbin (Elliott Reid) is a reporter for a news magazine. When he arrives in a small town in rural Minnesota, his reporter senses start tingling because things just don't add up there. Despite always being known as a great place to fish, all the fish are dead. And, despite there being no local industry or jobs, folks have moved INTO the town despite the crash of the fishing industry. And, finally, there is a compound nearby that is guarded like Fort Knox! Clearly something is going on here...and little does Corbin know that it's actually a base for germ warfare run by Commie-Nazis!! Why they didn't build it in the good 'ol USSR, I have no idea!

The plot is silly...but the sign of a good film is taking a ridiculous idea and making it seem possible and engaging. So don't worry that it's filled with mostly no-name actors and is a relatively low-budget picture, it's surprisingly good.

an in-credible film

[Brucey_D · 6/10 · 25 May 2017]

This film was the product of two main thoughts; 1) "Lets make a film about Nazi fifth columnists...." and 2) " hang on, let's make the bad guys ex-Nazis who are now Communists instead..." and so a muddled, overly expensive film is born. It would have been bad enough if the second thought had been shortly after the first, but it wasn't; the film had to be re-shot in part, and it shows.

This film isn't entirely without merit, but for me the story just doesn't make sense; leave alone the usual business where the bad guys insist on explaining their dark deeds in detail whilst not disposing of the good guys, or taking the opportunity to push the button etc (as seen in countless films ranging from 'The thirty-nine steps' to various Bond outings); here we are expected to believe that one of the main bad guys has comparatively recently been the subject of an exposé in a national magazine, but, er, this didn't immediately alert the bad guys when the writer turns up. Even though they knew all about it.

Oh, and while we're at it, you might notice that the good guy gets hit on the head twice, but in exactly the same place each time. What are the chances of that...? Quite high if you are trying to cobble a film together without having to reshoot the whole thing, as it turns out....

Just about worth watching if you have an interest in films of this type.

An amusing/scary mcarthyist tale depending on your outlook

[the_biologist · 5/10 · 27 May 2005]

In these times of paranoia, it is often useful to look back to the nineteen fifties and see the effects of a similar period of right wing domination - The Mcarthyist era. The Whip Hand is a anti-communist propaganda film set in the US. A Nazi germ warfare scientist who was captured by the soviets after WWII is alive and well and living in middle America. A Journalist on a fishing holiday stumbles across a remote town previously well know for its trout fisheries, but a virus has recently wiped them out. injuring himself, he looks for help at a private estate only to be turned away. reaching the town, a doctor (who is really a bacteriologist) treats him, but his curiosity has been peaked by his brusque treatment at the estate amongst other things and he decides to investigate, despite the best efforts of the local commies. With the help of the doctor's sister and the owner of the general store, he uncovers a sinister soviet plot to unleash germ warfare upon the US. Quite why the doctor's sister doesn't realise that he is a communist is unclear, as is the reason a committed Nazi has turned to communism. Interstingly the bacteriologists name is Edward Keller - very similar to the name of a US atomic scientist Edward Teller who at this time was working on the H-bomb - a far greater threat! For any student of left wing politics, this will be a hoot, but for someone who sincerely subscribes to US propaganda, past and present, it will undoubtedly be a great embarrassment.

Ordinary man goes fishing, then all hell breaks loose...

[marshalskrieg · 6/10 · 25 February 2020]

This is a rather straight forward thriller- a reporter stumbles into a story that not only threatens his life, but also threatens the life of America- can he survive long enough to save the day ? The camera work is frenetic at times and the sets have a subtle layered texture ; both aspects are very appealing. Practically the best part about this one is the fast pace, which never makes you fell bogged down. Our protagonist stumbles around for the first 30 minutes of the film, the viewer isn't sure what the movie is about. The hero discovers a nefarious plot, meets a mad scientist , the communist scare/ Cold War thing pervades this flick. Along the dangerous way romance occurs, and eventually we end up at a big lethal finale. This film was originally made with a different focus ( the theme involved restoring the 3rd Reich) but part of it was re shot to reflect then current (1951) anti communist concerns. I especially enjoyed seeing a younger Raymond Burr play the heavy. He was such a good bad guy, so sinister yet in a subdued way. 6.3 stars.

Communist immorality exposed

[gjackson-840-900969 · 10 November 2013]

I first saw this film in 1952 and have seen several times since. It's one of those movies I always get a kick out of. Critics are right to argue that the plot has a couple of rather large holes. They are not right in denouncing it as McCarthyist propaganda. These deep leftist thinkers need to be reminded that the release of the Venona Papers largely vindicate McCarthy investigations. Sneering leftists also need reminding of the amount of communist aggression that the West was facing. For example, the communists insurgencies in Greece and Malaya, both backed by the Soviets. Then there was the takeover of Eastern Europe followed by imprisonment, torture and execution of opponents. Let us also not forget the 1948 Berlin Blockade, the Korean War, the Berlin uprising in 1953 and the 1956 Hungarian uprising that the Soviets ruthlessly crushed.

The Cold War was far from being cold and was the creation of an aggressive Soviet Union. Before any more mal-educated leftists decide to start sneering at this movie maybe they will tell us why they choose to ignore the 100,000,000, people that communist regimes murdered. (The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, Harvard University Press,1999). Read this book and you might start thinking that this movie wasn't too far out after all.

This would make a great double feature

[dwknuj · 7/10 · 5 July 2023]

I would love to see this picture as the top half of a double feature. The credits proudly proclaim that this "Production Designed and Directed by William Cameron Menzies. That's a name that has been around since the silent era, mostly as a production designer.

I would love to see this paired with the Menzies movie, "Invaders from Mars." That was an ultra paranoid classic in which the villains were dirty stinking Martians instead of dirty stinking Commies.

"The Whip Hand," despite its Red Scare veneer, is a fun, watchable slice of American terror from the fabulous fifties. Take a look. You might like it.

Red Scare

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 5 July 2023]

Russians have infiltrated small Minnesota town Winnoga. Magazine writer Matt Corbin is on a fishing vacation. In a sudden rainstorm, he comes across a suspicious private property. The local town is also suspicious. Matt gets medical treatment from Dr. Edward Keller and his sister Janet Keller. It turns out that all the fish are dead and Matt starts investigating.

This was written as an anti-Nazi flick, but got reworked into a Red Scare film. Those were the times. The premise is a bit clunky, but it's good spooky. Raymond Burr is playing the big heavy. The movie is going a bit too slow and it needs more action. The style is neo-noir and somewhat horror-like. The plot just needs move a little faster.

"It's not often we have such healthy specimens to experiment with."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 9 July 2023]

A sinister vibe permeates this story of journalist Matt Corbin (Elliott Reid) as he sets out on a fishing trip to Minnesota's Winnoga Lake, only to learn that it's been devoid of fish for the past five years. With his writer's instinct that there might be a story here, Corbin attempts to investigate while wary town folk do all they can to prevent his progress. At first it appears that innkeeper Steve Loomis (Raymond Burr) is leading that charge, but he's really taking orders from a mysterious and well-hidden figure by the name of Peterson (Otto Waldis). Filmed in 1951, the picture does its best to instill the Cold War paranoia of the Fifties, while borrowing concepts from the prior era's Nazi Germany. The enigmatic Peterson comes out of hiding and is revealed to be a former Nazi germ warfare specialist, engaged in efforts to poison the country's water supply with his experimental toxins. I guess the filmmakers didn't consider how the current residents of Winnoga managed to survive their own drinking water, but I guess viewers weren't supposed to think about that. With the help of resident Janet Keller (Carla Balenda), Corbin learns that Peterson's alter ego is that of Dr. Wilhem Buckholtz, and surreptitiously gets a note to his editor at American View magazine, who in turn sets the authorities out to Winnoga to capture Buckholtz. Though they needn't have bothered, as the German baddie was summarily stomped to death by the victims of his cruel experiments in a more than fitting conclusion.

Hilarious

[abooboo-2 · 2/10 · 23 May 2001]

Atrocious. The first 20 minutes or so are competent, establishing the normally reliable premise of a curious stranger stumbling upon a paranoid, hostile town. But "Bad Day At Black Rock" this isn't. At a certain point, the viewer develops the queasy feeling that the producers gave up and said "Oh to hell with it. We don't know what we're doing here. What do you say we just try to wrap things up and go bowling?" Bad performances abound, especially from "leading man" Elliott Reid (sort of a poor man's Farley Granger) who does everything except raise his eyebrow and stroke his chin whenever he puts together another piece of the puzzle. Whoever plays the pitiful old shopkeeper rather embarrassingly seems to break character a couple times. The only person who leaves any kind of favorable impression is Raymond Burr (playing a sleazy local). He hams it up entertainingly, undoubtedly aware of how awful the whole thing is.

There is one incredibly weak exchange during a supposedly suspenseful chase towards the end. Reid and his cardboard love interest are trying to escape and he inquires "Are you wearing a watch?" She answers in the affirmative. His matter of fact reply? "Good." I half expected her to fire back with "Yes. Did you comb your hair?" At another point the love interest is in a reflective mode. "I can't believe my brother's a Communist" she states sadly. I want to say that Reid responds with "Yeah, tough break huh?" but it's hard to recall. I had lost a number of brain cells by that point.

The last ten minutes of this sorry excuse for a motion picture have to be seen to be believed. Just goes to show that clunkers were indeed made back then as well. Then again it is quite unintentionally funny if one watches it in the right frame of mind.

The Commies Are Polluting Our Streams

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 1 September 2009]

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.

Nazis nein - Commies dah!

[howdymax · 9/10 · 21 May 2001]

A photo-journalist on vacation arrives at a small town in Mid America to relax and do a little fishing. First, he finds that all the fish have died. Next he finds the residents all paranoid and secretive, especially the owner of the local lodge. When he accidentally trespasses on lodge property, he is attacked by guard dogs, and threatened by armed guards.

None of the local townsfolk will talk to him except the doctor's sister (read love interest) and the crusty old storekeeper. Little by little he comes to realize that the entire town is on a mission to develop germ and bacteria weapons which they intend to use to cripple America. I know - the plot is preposterous. But you ain't heard nothing yet. In the original story, all the bad guys were Nazi's and they even had Adolf Hitler hidden away at the lodge, but this movie was released in 1951 at the height of the McCarthy hearings and the Commie scare. So - all the bad guys became Communists.

Only in the movies.

"These commies mean business..."

[drjgardner · 4/10 · 14 February 2016]

This is a fairly ordinary anti-communist film from the early 50s, slightly below the standard of other films from this period like Pickup on South Street (1953), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), I Married a Communist (1950), and My Son John (1952). It falls way short of allegorical anti-communist films such as High Noon (1952) and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), although there are some who will argue that those films are not anti-communist but rather anti-American.

In a nutshell, a vacationing magazine reporter stumbles (Elliott Reid) on a plot to destroy America with biological weapons. The devious plot is devised by former Nazi and current Communist Otto Waldis, who is assisted by Raymond Burr.

William Cameron Menzies directs, but don't expect to see the marvelous work he did in such films as "The Black Book", "GWTW", "The Thief of Bagdad" and "Duel in the Sun".

Red scare relic: more interesting than entertaining

[jamesrupert2014 · 5/10 · 11 July 2023]

Intrigued by the economic decline of a Minnesota resort-town following the inexplicable death of all the fish in the lake, a reporter (Elliot Reid) stumbles on a deadly secret. Directed by William Cameron Menzies, the film has an interesting etiology. Originally, the plot involved a group of Nazi survivors lead by a flame-scarred Hitler planning revenge on the United States. Apparently, RKO owner Howard Hughes decided that Nazis were no longer a bankable threat and ordered that the villains be switched to American communists acting under orders from Moscow. The metamorphosis was done reasonably adroitly, with a new opening showing a number of Russian generals discussing their evil plot backdropped by a huge (and somewhat inaccurate) map of North America. Der Führer is left on the cutting-room floor and the malignant German scientist is explained away as an unrepentant totalit-Aryan who fled to the Reds rather than the Yanks when the Third Reich fell. This intriguing back-story is more interesting than the movie itself, which is a simplistic poli-thriller featuring what was once one of Hollywood's favorite characters: the intrepid and resourceful wise-cracking reporter. Raymond Burr manages to bring a sense of hefty-menace as the lead heavy and the rest of the cast is functional in non-demanding roles. Although the ending is somewhat abrupt (as is the obligatory romance), there are some reasonably handled twists-and-turns and Menzies' direction gives the low-budget thriller a moody feel. Not great but an interesting 'what might have been' - nasty Commies may have played better to early 50s' audiences but 'The Whip Hand' would likely be a cult classic these days if it starred a disfigured Hitler.