Rev. Robert Dunn Movies
- 1952
Louis de Rochemont, former March of Time producer whose "docudrama" films proved so popular in the 1940s, offers more of the same in Walk East on Beacon. Based on an article written (or ghostwritten) by J. Edgar Hoover, the film concerns the efforts by the FBI to plug up a dangerous security leak. Federal agent Belden (George Murphy) is assigned to locate the communist mastermind behind the leak, and to trace all avenues of informational access utilized by the Bad Guys. Finlay Currie co-stars as an Einstein-like scientist who is being blackmailed by the Reds into cooperating with them, while Karel Stepanek is slime personified as the top Eastern-Bloc spy. Largely filmed on location in New York, Walk East on Beacon makes good use of several Manhattan-based actors, few of whom were seen in films either before or since. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Murphy, Finlay Currie, (more)
- 1951
Produced by "March of Time" maven Louis de Rochemont, Whistle at Eaton Falls is docudrama concerning a labor dispute in a small New Hampshire town. Union leader Lloyd Bridges is reluctantly promoted to the presidency of Eaton Falls' plastics plant. Now in a management position, Bridges must lay off several of his old friends in order to cut down costs. He tries to do this as painlessly as possible, but his union-boss successor Murray Hamilton public derides Bridges' methods. The potent problems posed by the film are solved in too-slick Hollywood fashion when the plant is saved by a huge government contract and the introduction of cost-efficient machinery. Dorothy Gish makes one of her rare talking-picture appearances as the widow of the plant's former owner in Whistle at Eaton Falls, and if you look closely you'll spot Lloyd Bridges' infant son Jeff in his movie debut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Bridges, Dorothy Gish, (more)
- 1949
Until the House Un-American Activities Committee horned in, several postwar Hollywood films dealt with touchy "liberal" subject matter. Lost Boundaries stars Mel Ferrer as a light-skinned African-American, whose family is "passing" in an all-white New England community. When the truth comes out, the more bigoted neighbors demand the expulsion of Ferrer and his family. Considered pretty potent stuff in 1949, Lost Boundaries appears fairly conventional today, especially in its reluctance to cast a genuine black actor in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beatrice Pearson, Mel Ferrer, (more)
