Month: February 2015

DVD Review: I Was a Communist for the FBI


This week and next two weeks from now, I’ll be taking a look at I Was a Communist for the FBI.  The first post will talk about the movie and next will discuss the radio program.

Any discussion of Communism in the 1950s will be controversial due to the “red scare.” My understanding based on the study of the era is that two things are true: 1) there were many innocent people charged with being Communists and 2) there were actual Communist who working to infiltrate others as agents of the Soviet Union and still others working to undermine and basic the basic social systems of the United States in order to bring about a people’s revolution.

There is also debate on the exact role that the real Matt Cvetic had or what he accomplished in his undercover work, but this debate doesn’t really matter as both the Movie and the Radio show were very fictionalized (though in different ways), so the exact truth of what actually happened to Cvetic has little to do with either.

In the film, Cvetic (played by Night Beat’s Frank Lovejoy) is in the tale end of his 9 years as a Communist for the FBI and it’s a miserable lot in life. His mother is dying and he rushes to her bedside too late to tell her the truth. His brothers look on with contempt for being a Communist and for the pain that brought his mother. When Cvetic’s son learns that Cvetic is a Communist, he turns on him as well.

Cvetic has worked his way up into high circles of the American Communist Party and the film draws an interesting line between the rank and file Communists as represented by a Cvetic’s son’s teacher and the leadership.

The leadership is two faced and hypocritical. With rank and file party members, they’re all about equality and the revolution of the proletariat. Among themselves, they’re far more honest. When the Communists take over, someone’s going to be in charge, so it might as well be them. They want to be like the pigs in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. One of them who is working actively to incite Communist activists among Blacks casually drops the “n-word” and persists with even when Cvetic challenges him on it. Cvetic is ironically considered the “true believer” of this group of senior party members.

The party leaders are also cunning and ruthless, not caring if innocents or bystanders are hurt in the process. In one scene, dedicated to helping the Soviets stop American steel production by staging strikes with fake protesters. This leads to people being savagely beaten including Cvetic’s own brother.

The teacher decides she’s had enough and wants out of the party but the party sets out to liquidate her and Cvetic has to foil the plan without breaking his cover.  This is a bit of an add on but it’s decently done.

Overall, the movie shows some ways in which Communists did  or could have operated at the highest levels  particularly how on one occasion, they staged a filibuster and managed to force their way through a non-Communist union to get their way on the strike.

The film is in a way targeted towards the casual Communist and tried to warn of the long-suspected ties between the Community Party USA and the Soviet Union in hopes of encouraging people to leave before they got in too deep similar to a radio series of the time called Last Man Out. 

Ultimately, nothing was too original about the movie’s message or propaganda value but what makes it stand out is the performance of Lovejoy as Matt Cvetic, a man whose position is eating him up. After 9 years, he hates the people who like him and is alienated from his friends and family, he takes part in despicable plots. Lovejoy does a good job portraying a tortured man who continues being ripped apart by what he does because his love for country and concern for his son’s future is worth the sacrifice even if part of that sacrifice is being despised by his son.

Overall,  this is a good but flawed film, with an ending that’s a bit confusing. Still, this is a decent film that rises above average due to the complex issues surrounding Matt Cvetic.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0

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EP1508: Dragnet: The Big Girl

Jack Webb

Joe Friday and Ben Romero hunt for a suspect identified as a beautiful woman who hitches rides with men, then robs and beats them.

Original Air Date: February 9, 1950

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EP1507: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Model Picture Matter

Bob Bailey
Johnny is hired to protect a beautiful model who is receiving threats.

Original Air Date: November 3, 1957

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EP1506: Nick Carter: The Case of the Hermit Thrush

Lon Clark
A wealthy recluse disappears  when his housekeeper is murdered.

Original Air Date: October 12, 1947

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EP1505: Philip Marlowe: The Rustin Hickory

Gerald Mohr

A teacher from Nebraska hires Marlowe to solve a murder and keep her name out of the paper.

Original Air Date: September 10, 1949

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EP1504: Crime and Peter Chambers: The Utopia Ballroom Murder

Dane Clark
Peter is hired to investigate the murder of an aspiring actress.

Original Air Date: August 10, 1954

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EP1503: The Saint: It’s Snow Use

Vincent Price

The Saint while in a vacation to a lodge is asked to pretend to be the husband of a woman who fears being murdered by her ex-husband.

Original Air Date: October 29, 1950

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EP1502s: Lux Radio Theater: The Thin Man

The Thin Man

Nick Charles, a retired private detective is drawn back to detection with the insistence of his wife, Nora, when a former client is suspected of several murders.

Original Air Date: June 8, 1936

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EP1502: Dragnet: The Child Killer

Jack Webb

Friday and Romero search for two lost little girls.

Original Air Date: February 2, 1950

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Book Review: The Jade Ogre

In this 1992 Will Murray novel, the legendary adventure Doc Savage faces a deadly challenge when he battles the Jade Ogre, a strange being whose decapitated arms fly on their own and deal a horrible green death to the Ogre’s enemies.

The Jade Ogre is unusual in that Murray adapted the idea from a story original Doc Savage writer Lester Dent had written about a private detective, so this story has a bit of a mystery element in it and some detective tropes that play a role such as Doc explaining the solution to his aides at the end. However, the mystery is much more a matter of how rather than who as Murray provides more than enough clues to figure out who is behind the Jade Ogre. Also this makes more sense understanding it was based on a serialized story as it does have a very strong serialized feel.

In addition to the mystery, the book delivered the usual things we expect from Doc Savage with plenty of action, adventure, gadgets, and some great interaction between Doc’s assistants. Here, as in the other more recent books, the number of supporting players is kept down to a minimum with Ham, Monk, and Pat Savage appearing. Murray is even more careful about overusing assistants as for most of the book, only two are “on stage” at once with Pat and Ham together early and Monk and Ham late. This allows enough interaction between the Bronze Man’s two most beloved assistants (Monk and Ham) without their carping on each other becoming monotonous.

As always, Murray achieves a great period feel and this book succeeds in transporting readers back to the 1930s.

The story has one major plot hole and that comes from the whodunit plot. We learn that when Doc gives the solution that several others had figured out who the guilty party was. This leads the question of why everyone followed a crazed murder blindly into a trap.

Beyond that, there are more things that could be nitpicked, but at the end of the day, this isn’t great literature, it’s Doc Savage. And this book lives up to the high standards set by other installments in this series. So if you have a love of 1930s Pulp fiction in your soul, this book is for you.

If you enjoyed this post, you can have new posts about Detective stories and the golden age of radio and television delivered automatically to your Kindle.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that items purchased from these links may result in a commission being paid to the author of this post at no extra cost to the purchaser

EP1501: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Three Sisters Matter

Bob Bailey

Johnny is to investigate the death of a famous musician with his three stepdaughters being the prime suspects.

Original Air Date: October 27, 1957

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EP1500: Nick Carter: Case of the Two Faced Firemaster

Lon Clark

After capturing a young robber, Nick sets out to find out who is supplying the city’s criminals with guns.

Original Air Date: September 21, 1947

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EP1499: Philip Marlowe: Bum’s Rush

Gerald Mohr
Marlowe’s Aunt in Montana asks him to find her boyfriend, a hobo who went to Los Angeles.

Original Air Date: September 3, 1949

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EP1498: Crime and Peter Chambers: Murder at the Track

Dane Clark

A jockey asks Pete for help and then is murdered after what appears to be a thrown race.

Original Air Date: August 3, 1954

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EP1497: The Saint: Dossier on a Doggone Dog

Barry Sullivan

Simon finds a dog and finds himself investigating a jewel theft and eventually a murder.

Original Air Date: September 24, 1950

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