The absurd stupidity of the movie would be funny if not for the chilling realization that some folks actually believed this nonsense.
I found the scene with the "reformed" communist nurse who now worked in a leper colony (nice symbolism there -- that working with lepers, the lowest of the low, is still a step up from Commies) to be a good microcosm of the entire film. The woman explained that she reformed when she realized that communism was nothing more than a vast conspiracy to enslave the working man.
It's one thing to critique a philosophy because you believe it is unjust, or unworkable, or otherwise flawed. But to find yourself so threatened by someone else's beliefs that you'll put such ridiculous words into the mouths of your characters is insulting to the intelligence of your audience. It's also lousy propoganda. There was plenty wrong with communism (still is), but to suggest that it's a "conspiracy" trying to make slaves of the working class is downright crazy.
Particularly stomach churning is to see such pap come from Hollywood in 1952, right in the middle of Senator McCarthy's brutal reign of terror -- many of whose victims were actors and directors.
This film does do a good job of exposing traitors -- I'd say that those involved in creating it would certainly fit the bill. Not traitors to their country, of course. In fact, I'm sure they all believed themselves to be great patriots. They were, instead, traitors to their own kind.
John Wayne made some great Westerns. He shouldn't have branched out. Certainly not like this.
I found the scene with the "reformed" communist nurse who now worked in a leper colony (nice symbolism there -- that working with lepers, the lowest of the low, is still a step up from Commies) to be a good microcosm of the entire film. The woman explained that she reformed when she realized that communism was nothing more than a vast conspiracy to enslave the working man.
It's one thing to critique a philosophy because you believe it is unjust, or unworkable, or otherwise flawed. But to find yourself so threatened by someone else's beliefs that you'll put such ridiculous words into the mouths of your characters is insulting to the intelligence of your audience. It's also lousy propoganda. There was plenty wrong with communism (still is), but to suggest that it's a "conspiracy" trying to make slaves of the working class is downright crazy.
Particularly stomach churning is to see such pap come from Hollywood in 1952, right in the middle of Senator McCarthy's brutal reign of terror -- many of whose victims were actors and directors.
This film does do a good job of exposing traitors -- I'd say that those involved in creating it would certainly fit the bill. Not traitors to their country, of course. In fact, I'm sure they all believed themselves to be great patriots. They were, instead, traitors to their own kind.
John Wayne made some great Westerns. He shouldn't have branched out. Certainly not like this.