Man on a String

André de Toth – 1960 – USA

Though not the most well-known, André de Toth was one of a handful of no-nonsense directors of stripped-down, uber-masculine action films who flourished in the world of B-movies in the 50s; guys like Nicholas Ray, Samuel Fuller, Budd Boetticher, Anthony Mann and Robert Aldrich.  Man on a String is a very odd Cold War potboiler comprised of about 70% hackneyed melodrama and 30% thrilling manhunt.  That might sound like a problem, but the 30% - the climax of the film - is worth the price of admission.  Ernest Borgnine plays a Russian expatriate operating in America as a successful film producer.  The KGB controls him with promises of delivering his family members to the U.S. as well, over time.  But American espionage agents – of the fictional Central Bureau of Intelligence – discover him and press him into service as a double agent.  There is a comically ham-fisted Dragnet style narration throughout intoned with earnest urgency by an unknown reader.  That and all the dialogue heavy with shameless patriotic moralizing function to go overboard in establishing the film’s anti-communist stance, and the purpose of that, in turn, is so it won’t be missed when it’s  completely abandoned at the onset of the climax, at which point ideology flies out the window and the film becomes a very effective chase story as Borgnine’s cover is blown and he must flee for his life.