Dana Andrews plays a cocky but very competent news correspondent working in Paris during the height of the Cold War. The major story when the film began is the incarceration of an innocent American by the Communist Hungarian government. A bit later, Andrews himself is sent to Hungary. It's hardly a surprise that he's pulled into the espionage business, as he's trying to sneak out the truth about what's really happening behind the Iron Curtain. It also wasn't much of a surprise that the government jailed and tortured him as well as coming up with a fake confession--created by cleverly splicing a recording to make Andrews seem to admit to spying (though, technically speaking, he was a spy--though not for any government, but to sneak out stories to the press). All this is pretty interesting and a great curio of the times, though the rather pat conclusion wasn't exactly the high-point of this otherwise decent film. Not great, but certainly interesting.
Review of Assignment: Paris
