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Reviews
Mission to Moscow (1943)
Springtime for Stalin
One scene defines the movie for me. Ambassador Davies (finally, breathlessly) gets to interview Comrade Stalin, and out comes this gentle little gnome of a man, full of love and concern for his country--almost a Ghandi character, Russian style. Joseph Stalin, who made his own country run red with innocent blood and started the largest, most brutal, and murderous system of concentration camps ever conceived by man, is presented in this movie as a "Mr. Rogers" clone.
The movie's misrepresentation of such men as Bukarin, Tukachevsky, and others as being Nazi conspirators (when they were in fact totally innocent), was almost too much to stomach. Huston should have been ashamed to be found in this movie, let alone be the leading force behind making it.
This is pro-Stalin yuck at its best. This probably does show how deep Hollywood was penetrated by Communist agents and sympathizers.
Conspirator (1949)
Good Cold War film noir
Great plot, great movie. I can see that the commies in Hollywood would not like it, and it was banned in Finland, which was highly influenced by the Stalinists in Russia at the time.
With a background in political science and history, I can say that there really is a lot of realism in this movie. It was not at all uncommon for lifelong spies to be betrayed by their own need for love. And, the naive attitude of the Taylor character in seeking help from the Ruskies (remember, with STALIN in charge, was not at all unusual.
The attitude of the Brits, who had been watching him all along, is also pretty typical of real situations.
My wife particularly liked Taylor cast against type, and we both thought that Liz did a great job, as well as Taylor, in this pretty exciting and dramatic film.