Colpevole di tradimento

In Guilty of Treason, reporter Tom Kelly (Paul Kelly) tells a group the story of Cardinal Josef Mindszenty.

Mindszenty was a Hungarian Catholic cardinal who was vocal against the German occupation during WorldWar II and later the country's Communist regime.

Though he was arrested and tortured, the Russians did not want to make him a martyr, so he was not killed. He moved into the US Embassy in Budapest and continued to speak out against the Russians.

This film was directed by Felix Feist, produced by Jack Wrather and featured his wife, Bonita Granville, as someone against the Communists, and the scenes showing her torture were graphic and horrible. The Russian colonel she is in love with (Richard Derr) is a party man and will not help her.

Mindszenty eventually moved to Vienna and died there in 1975 at the age of 82. He was named venerable by the Catholic Church in 2019.

Made in 1950, Kelly breaks the fourth wall at the end by saying either liberty is for everyone or there is no liberty. Given everything going on today this remains a sobering statement.

This film aptly portrays how the Russians and Americans tried to bore each other to death during the cold war.Unfortunately, this kind of anti-Russian propaganda is almost impossible to sit through. If you're not fond of Catholic priests, avoid like the plague. Even if you are, Charles Bickford's portrayal of a Hungarian man of God's refusal to toe the Kremlin line is bordering on the catatonic, as if they had already hypnotised him into submission before filming began; you'd have to be hypnotised to agree to filming a script this stodgy, this talky, where almost every dramatic opportunity is botched.Paul Kelly and Bonita Granville try to bring some life into it, but only Roland Winters, as the evil ever-smiling manipulator, seems to be having any fun. Recommend it to people you don't like.

This movie came out 63 years before the release of "Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism," by Ronald Rychlak and Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa. The same points in this film which anti anti-communists and religious skeptics and bigots resent or deny have been more than confirmed by Pacepa's detailed and carefully constructed memoir. Pacepa, former acting chief of communist Romania's espionage service and senior person in the Soviet Union's "Dezinformatsiya" campaign, reveals what Communist disinformation accomplished and wrought. His account of Mindszenty's plight only substantiates the entire plot and dialogue of this movie. In fact, what we learn in this production is fact, as opposed to the highly fictionalized accounts of Che Guevara.

There was certainly no shortage of anti-Soviet films coming out of Hollywood in the 1950's and this one, directed by extremely capable 'B' director Felix E. Feist, has a sense of immediacy, partly based as it is upon the personal papers of Hungarian Cardinal József Mindszenty whose torture, show trial and imprisonment in 1949 were still fresh in the memory.

Alec Guinness played a character based upon Mindszenty in 'The Prisoner' from 1955 and apparently the Cardinal was none too keen on that actor's 'fictional' portrayal. We do not know what he thought of Charles Bickford's performance in this earlier film, the very nature of which requires a far less complex and far more one-dimensional interpretation. Mr. Pickford never disappoints of course but although his Cardinal symbolises strength of character and determination he somehow lacks spirituality. His is muscular Catholicism to be sure.

The film is co-produced by a Catholic and features his wife Bonita Granville as an idealistic schoolteacher who suffers a terrible price for her hopeless love for a Russian Colonel whose beliefs are diametrically opposed to hers. Leonard Maltin considers her miscast but the sincerity of her performance is beyond question. Perfectly cast is Paul Kelly as a no-nonsense investigative reporter. In the understandable absence of any Russian actors we have Americans Roland Winters as a glib and oily Commissar and Richard Derr as Colonel Melnikov is suitably expressionless as a Soviet automaton. There is a chilling turn by Morgan Farley as a 'doctor' entrusted with the task of breaking Mindszenty down and a pragmatic, mediocre Hungarian playwright is played by John Banner, a refugee from Hitler's Anschluss who is probably best known as Schultz in 'Hogan's Heroes'.

The film has the advantage of editing by Walter Thompson and owes its darkly atmospheric look to the superlative lighting cameraman John L. Russell, most renowned for his work on 'Psycho'.

Although low on budget it does not stint on the truth and makes no distinction between the twin evils of Communism and Nazism. As Paul Kelly's character observes, 'Liberty is everybody's business'.

The Story of Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty (Charles Bickford), A Roman Catholic Cardinal from Hungary.

He Stood-Up Against the Oppression of Russian Communist.

Arrested and a Private Mock-Trial Ensued, He was Tortured and Forced to "Confess" that He was an "Enemy of the State".

One of the Most Gripping, Realistic Anti-Communist Films of the Era.

It Strikes a Balance of the Famous Plight of the Cardinal with a Personal Story of a Journalist (Paul Kelly), a Music Teacher (Bonita Granville), and a Russian Col. (Richard Derr).

The Film is Stylized in a Film-Noir Pastiche with Surreal Scenes of Interrogation and Torture that can Disturb, even Today.

Gut-Wrenching at Times, Punctuated with Tender Scenes that makes the Totalitarian Regime even More Brutal.

Visually Stunning, Well Acted "Propaganda" Piece that is Mostly True and the Facts Speak for Themselves.

What could be Considered "Embellishments" for Political Purposes is Not Because these Things Actually Did Occur.

Although Paul Kelly's Journalist Breaks the Fourth-Wall in the Final Shot, Looks Straight Into the Camera and "Calls to Arms" the Fight for Liberty...

It is the Only Time the Movie Separates Itself from the Gruesome Reality.