Word: gouzenkos
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...film is unfolded in the March-of-Time manner, implying authenticity. It tells of the young Soviet embassy clerk in Ottawa, Igor Gouzenko, who finally sees that his colleagues are seeking to undermine a good country and are getting atomic secrets for reasons other than world peace. Gouzenko steals from the embassy some documentary proof of this and tries to warn the Canadian government. He falls in this, but Gouzenko, wife and child, are rescued in the nick of time from the Russians by the arrival of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. That is the end of the picture...
...telling of it is made vividly exciting by the use of such standard Hollywood gimmicks as the sliding panels, the catacombs beneath the embassy, the Mata Hari girls, and a big, fat, replusive character for the villain. (It should be pointed out too, that the actor playing Gouzenko is clearly a Michigan boy and is clearly the one to be rooting for. The cards, you see have been stacked in Hollywood...
...Iron Curtain (20th Century-Fox) is the fact-fictional story of the Soviet-Canadian atomic spy ring, and of how it was cracked (TIME, March 11, 1946). It centers on the Soviet Embassy Code Clerk Igor Gouzenko (Dana Andrews with a short haircut) who did the cracking. An odd blend of naivete and expert craftsmanship, the picture is an above-average spine-chiller. It is also topnotch anti-Communist propaganda...
...persuasive and exciting one. Under William Wellman's taut direction, it catches something of the soul-freezing discipline and mutual mistrust which must be the normal climate for totalitarian operations; something, too, of the way ardent amateurs in "front" groups are exploited. And near the end, when Gouzenko is trying hopelessly to find a Canadian who will listen to his story while the pursuers close in, the suspense is really awful...
...this were no more than a mere thriller, it would be quibbling to point out that a few patches are hard to swallow. One agent manages to decode a message while sitting in the back seat of a moving auto, at night. After betraying his government, Gouzenko seems astonished to hear what will happen to his family and his wife's (Gene Tierney), although he has lived in Soviet Russia most of his life, and is a seasoned professional agent. His reasons for changing sides are also rather thinly explored ; and some of the top spies are such blatant...