Diplomatic Courier ***½ (1952, Tyrone Power, Patricia Neal, Stephen McNally, Hildegarde Neff, Karl Malden) – Classic Movie Review 4862

Tyrone Power stars as US Department of State courier Mike Kells, an American agent who is up to his ears in espionage, Soviet agents and seductive women, in director Henry Hathaway’s slick and satisfying 1952 film noir-style spy thriller.

20th Century Fox’s typical Fifties espionage film is set in Trieste, with a complex, tricky and teasing plot about Russian plans to invade Yugoslavia.

A well-handled Thirties Hitchcock-style suspense thriller, it is loaded with a full cargo of exciting train sequences, tense scenes of intrigue and suspenseful chases.

Even Power is more high-powered than usual, Patricia Neal (as Joan Ross) and Hildegarde Neff (as Janine Betki) are excellent, and note the excellent support cast, with scene-stealing Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Hugh Marlowe and E G Marshall  in small parts. It also stars Stephen McNally as Colonel Mark Cagle, Karl Malden as Sergeant Ernie Guelvada and James Millican as Mike’s friend Sam Carew.

The package is all neatly tied together with dedicated, realistic direction from Hathaway, a master of this kind of movie.

The strong screenplay by producer Casey Robinson and Liam O’Brien is based on Peter Cheyney’s novel Sinister Errand. Lucien Ballard shoots in black and white and Lionel Newman scores.

Also in the cast are Stefan Schnabel, Herbert Berghof, Arthur Blake, Helene Stanley, Michael Ansara, Sig Arno, Alfred Linder, Peter Coe, Tyler McVey, Dabbs Greer, Carleton Young, Tom Powers, Lumsden Hare, Russ Conway and Stuart Randall.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4862

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