Monday, July 7, 2014

The Red Menace (1949)

How bad is it? It was a rushed bit of propaganda, heavy-handed and stilted.
Should you see it? Maybe on a double bill with Red Planet Mars (previous post)


Filmed in a few weeks on minimal budget and scripted as it was being filmed, this movie came out as McCarthyism first reared its head and people went out of their way to look patriotic. The plot has a G.I. getting involved with communists, who use liquor and pretty girls to attract new members. He falls in love, then they witness the murder of a member who questions their ways, and then they decide to leave the party, which gets them targeted for assassination. Most of the film is their being hunted by commie killers. It looks like a bigger budget Hollywood film and is technically much better than most films on this blog, it's just a hackneyed story that couldn't be fixed.

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