There are some performers, even in a small part, that have you sitting up and opening IMDb in a hurry. Suzette Harbin is one such - here in ‘Foxes of Harrow’ (1947). She brings a dignity and power to this part that seems almost miraculous.
Not even director William Wellman could make filing look interesting. Yet much of the 1948 noir drama The Iron Curtain (subject of mynewest Grand Old Movies post, now up) consists of watching Dana Andrews put papers in file cabinets, take papers out of file cabinets, and put them back in again. Andrews plays Igor Gouzenko, a real-life Russian spy in the Soviet Embassy in Canada, who one day in 1945 pulled 109 files on Soviet espionage activity from a file cabinet and defected to the West. His actions were said to be the start of the Cold War, and are the subject of this film.
The Iron Curtain is one of many such docu-drama films issued by Hollywood after the 2nd World War, and, like all of them, it’s is unrelentingly grim. Gouzenko must have lived under constant strain, which Wellman conveys through long, shadowy takes of Andrews being watched, examined, or grilled by Soviet operatives on his competence and loyalty (being a Soviet spy also meant be spied on—by your own side), all the while doggedly filing masses of paper in grim, gray rooms. The matter is meant to be serious; this is probably not a film to watch when you’re in a party mood. There are some compensations, though, mainly an amusing performance by Berry Kroeger as a flamboyant Soviet agent who enjoys Western luxuries and doesn’t mind if others take notice (if it’s a party guest you need, he’s your man). Please click here to read my post.
