The 49th Man

Federal agents get wind of a nefarious plot by enemy agents to smuggle components of an atomic bomb into the United States. The enemy agents plan to then assemble it and blow up a major American city. The feds try to hide the fact that they have captured several of the smugglers in order to find the meeting place and capture the ring leader.

This "B" grade thriller is of interest for its moderately interesting plot. John Ireland gives a good performance as a federal agent determined to catch the enemy agents. Everything else is pretty standard.

Cold War paranoia reaches its heights in The 49th Man, an obvious bow to the British film, The 49th Parallel in title. Would that this film be half as good.

A kid tooling down a New Mexico highway crashes his hotrod in the desert and gets killed. There's a strange looking object in a lead case which the local sheriff brings to the attention of local FBI guy John Ireland who in turn brings it to Los Alamos on a hunch. I guess it was handy to have Los Alamos around. Anyway it turns out to be part of an atomic bomb.

With the assignment from his superior Richard Denning, Ireland goes on a manhunt which takes him across the USA and to Montreal and Marseilles. The depth of this Red conspiracy reaches into the United States Navy and beyond. But the FBI in peace and war does its thing.

Oddly enough with the development of nuclear technology and the well documented problems today of protecting our borders, The 49th Man does have a curious relevance for today. Still it is a prime example of McCarthyist paranoia at its heights.

None of the other reviewers seem to realize that this movie was "remade", using a somewhat different premise, but very similar in many aspects of the plot, including the last minute, down-to-the-wire ending. It was called "The Fourth Protocol", released in 1987, starring Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan.

Of course "The Fourth Protocol" had much bigger stars, bigger budget, better writers and better production values, and was certainly more believable. But we are comparing it with an early 50s B movie. It seems to me that the makers of the later movie must surely have seen this early one.

Others have commented about the Red Scare and the proliferation of this type of film in the '50s, so I won't.

The 49th man stars John Ireland and Richard Denning and involves the search for pieces of the atom bomb which are being smuggled in to the U. S.

I won't go into a lot of detail about the plot, but it was very far-fetched and simplistic.

I do, however, like both John Ireland and Richard Denning. Also, I noticed "Touch Connors" in the credits. He of course became Mike Connors, and it was fun to see him.

Many of these films that involved the armed services or some government office contained narrations and tended to be on the dry side. This film had more action.

Nowadays, it's easy for folks to make fun of the Cold War era--and in particular the paranoid 1950s. However, given the proliferation of atomic weapons and a vow from Stalin to destroy the West, it's understandable why so many films of the time were about Communist plots or giant mutant creatures created through atomic fission. So when I see "The 49th Man", I see its plot as a definite product of these scary times--a time when it seemed very possible that the human race would wipe itself out sooner or later. Because of this, the film is a lot more tense than most films--even if the plot is a little far-fetched.

The film begins with a scary discovery--a portion of an atomic bomb is found amidst car wreckage! And, scientists examining it have determined that the weapon has been broken down into dozens are pieces--and each can be easily transported by an enemy agent (i.e., a Commie!). So, it's up to John Ireland (a great Noir actor) to track down the agents and get to the bottom of this plot against America.

Taut action and good acting carry the day here. While this is not a fancy big-budget film, it is entertaining and a great window into a very tense era.