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5.0 out of 5 stars
An Engrossing Work, Its Background The Dramatic Gouzenko Affair., October 26, 2006
This review is from: Operation Manhunt (DVD)
The Cold War, ideological but non-military conflict between the Soviet Union and its satellite states aligned against disparate values represented by the United States with its allies, greatly affected the entire civilized world, and is generally dated from 1947 through the downfall of the U.S.S.R. at the end of 1991, but its origin is probably the Igor Gouzenko Affair that startled the West in September of 1945 when Gouzenko, a cipher clerk assigned to the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, defected to the Canadian government, therewith exposing the intentions of the Russians to steal nuclear weapons data from host Canada and also from the neighbouring United States. Gouzenko, along with his wife and children, finds that a middle class pseudonymous existence somewhere in Canada is far more pleasant than would be a return to their Motherland, as his diverting memoirs plainly recount, but Soviet intelligence agents do not cease in their endeavours to locate and silence him, and that is the basis for the plot of this very well-made film that provides a strong feeling of suspense to a viewer. Because virtually no verifiable information is on hand for the depiction of actual events in Gouzenko's life subsequent to his defection, a requisite fictional narrative is skillfully created for this film by Paul Monash, and production values are high for a film with rather limited funding, originally slated to have tandem showings in theatres and for television. The storyline tells of an effort by the head of the Russian spy structure within Canada, Colonel Rostovich (Will Kuluva), to determine the whereabouts of Gouzenko, by contacting his publisher through operative Volov (Jacques Aubuchon), imported from the U.S.S.R. specifically to continue the search for an elusive Gouzenko in order to eliminate him. Volov writes a letter to Gouzenko telling of his admiration for Igor's actions and moral judgement, and additionally of a desire to follow him by fleeing into Canadian hands. Gouzenko, despite the considered skeptical opinion of his publisher and others, in addition to his own misgivings, agrees to see Volov and the tension is palpable as their meeting time nears. A note of realism is struck early on within the film and nearly every frame demonstrates careful attention to detail in a satisfyingly paced work that was initially planned as a quasi-documentary, and there is footage of a hooded Gouzenko proselytizing for the benefit of the camera's eye at the picture's conclusion, but extremely accurate production design, location shooting at actual sites of the historic incidents in and near Montreal, along with outstanding contributions from cast and crew have converted the piece into a superior thriller of the Espionage genre. A viewer might not wish for more from the players as all are adept, with acting laurels here going to Aubuchon for his ably layered performance; renowned European director of photography Ákos Farkas is inventive in his wonted realistic style from the opening scenes; and a felicitous score from English cinema organist Sidney Torch is transposed into an effective descriptive orchestral format by Jack Shaindlin, and incisively edited by Kenneth Hawk. Mackinac Media has completed a singularly fine transfer with this 2006 DVD high-definition mastering of the scarcely known 1954 United Artists original. Both the visuals and the monaural sound are impressively crystalline. Bonus features for the DVD package include the original theatrical trailer, pressbox stills, and informative pressbook facts relevant to the dramatic Igor Gouzenko Affair. Although the 1948 film THE IRON CURTAIN, featuring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney as Gouzenko and his wife, is a splendid achievement, clearly benefiting from an ample Twentieth Century-Fox budget, OPERATION MANHUNT has its components organized in top-flight fashion, jelling as it proceeds to become an uncommonly well-crafted masterpiece of espionage flavoured suspense.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
For Gouzenko, no corner of the planet is safe!, January 25, 2006
This review is from: Operation Manhunt (DVD)
Operation Manhunt (1954) seems to pick up where The Iron Curtain (1948) left off, continuing the story of Igor Gouzenko, a Russian spy, working in Canada, who, in the mid 1940s, became disillusioned enough with his own gooberment to defect to the West, bringing along a whole mess of top secret papers that revealed the identities of various secret agents and disrupted numerous spy rings, something which the Communists didn't take to kindly to at the time. Written by Paul Monash ("The Untouchables", "Peyton Place", "V"), and directed by Jack Alexander, in his only credit, the film features Harry Townes (The Brothers Karamazov, Tarzan and the Mountains of the Moon) in one of his few, starring roles. Also appearing is Irja Jensen, Robert Goodier (Oedipus Rex), Will Kuluva (The Spy in the Green Hat), Ovila Légaré (I Confess), and Jacques Aubuchon, whom I remember from the Robert Mitchum film Thunder Road (1958), as Carl Kogan, the main antagonist.
As the movie begins we get some background on the real life character of Igor Gouzenko, played by Townes here, learning all about how he was once a cipher clerk for the Soviet embassy in Canada (in reality he was a spy, as were all Russians at the time, apparently) and how he defected to the West, becoming a Canadian citizen, after realizing most all the information related to him throughout his life with regards to Westerners was, shall we say, skewed, by an oppressive gooberment intent on world domination and suppressing freedom in general. During his escape he managed to procure many secret documents which ultimately lead authorities to uncover a great many spies within the system, and really put a hamper on a number of covert operations, many involved with stealing precious atomic secrets, which, in turn, made Gouzenko Russian public enemy number one, with a bullet, so to speak...the story here picks up in the mid 1950s, and the Russians are still pretty peeved (boy, they can sure carry a grudge), as they're determined to get Gouzenko, if only to make an example of him for others inclined to leave the party early. In an effort to rub Gouzenko out once and for all, a chubby special agent named Volov (Aubuchon) is brought in and a plan formulated to make Gouzenko, who's now a writer, think the agent is planning on defecting, inspired by Gouzenko's earlier success, but difficulties arise as Gouzenko, along with his family, who are in hiding, with few in the know about his secret identity, and communications with the outside world limited to mainly Gouzenko's publisher (Goodier), the two having created an elaborate system for face to face meetings. As the story progresses, Gouzenko is eventually lured out into the open as while he is suspicious of the situation, he can't discount the possibility one of his former, fellow countrymen has had his eyes opened to the freedoms enjoyed by those not under Communist rule.
I was half expecting another retelling of how Gouzenko initially defected, but, like I said earlier, Operation Manhunt is essentially an extension of events that occurred years after his hasty exit, stage left...I'll tell you what, Gouzenko sure milked the hell out of his various exploits, all of which here are supposedly authentic, with only the names and places changed to protect those involved. This obviously modestly budgeted feature wasn't too bad, but didn't have the level of action I was hoping for...instead we get many sequences of Gouzenko and his publisher initiating elaborate, and, apparently necessary, ruses to fool enemy agents still hot on his heels even some ten years after the fact. I have to say I wasn't really impressed with the Soviet characters depicted here, as while they weren't of the Boris Badenov quality, they were certainly close, but given the time the film was made, there probably wasn't much inclination to portray the Russian spies in even the most modest of terms. Often we saw stocky, dour faced men who always seemed out of place, and lacked quite a bit in the subterfuge department. Even their master plan to get at Gouzenko was obvious and clumsy, and only found success because Gouzenko was, in my opinion, optimistic to a fault. My favorite scenes involved the agents meeting with their fearless leader, a military attaché named Colonel Rostovich (Kuluva), connected with the embassy, who was saddled with the difficult task of not only finding and eliminating Gouzenko, but also trying to make certain his own men wouldn't succumb to the influences of the West...I mean seriously, how ya gonna keep `em on the farm once they've seen Ottawa? I thought it a nice touch the prominent display of pictures of both Lenin and Stalin in Rostovich's office, eliminating any questions towards his loyalties. The best scene, perhaps, is near the end when the scheme to lure Gouzenko out is coming into fruition. During a final planning session with the two agents involved, Rostovich begins talking about the agent's families (who are back in the motherland), specifically their good health, going so far as to produce recent photos. No threats were ever spoken, but the intent was clear...you even think about taking off and bad and nasty things will happen to those you love. The men most definitely got the point. Overall the performances were decent, and the direction worked, even creating suspense here and there through some better than average cinematography, although I thought the whole aspect of the story with regards to Volov's intentions were presented kind of clumsily. Another aspect I found amusing was near the end, as the anti-communist sentiment was laid on a bit thick, as up until then, the story maintained a relatively even keel, even with the enemy agents portrayed as somewhat buffoonish, but given the fact at the time the film came out we were neck deep in the Cold War, I would have been surprised had they not took the tact they did...perhaps the best sequence is at the end, as the real Igor Gouzenko appears to provide an epilogue, seen sitting behind a desk in a suit wearing an ill-fitting hood over his head, in order to protect his identity, looking a lot like the Cobra Commander character from that G.I. Joe cartoon.
The picture quality on this DVD, released by Mackinac Media, presented in enhanced widescreen letterbox for 16X9 TVs, looks pretty decent. There are signs of age present, like small lines and white specking throughout, but nothing overly distracting, and the mono audio comes through reasonably well, although some of the dialog was a bit muddled. As far as extras go, included is an original trailer for the film, pressbook stills, which were nice but on the small side and difficult to see at times, along with pressbook facts, which provided quite a bit of interesting information about Gouzenko and the perils he faced after defecting.
Cookieman108
If I learned anything from this film it's that Canada was a real hotbed of Communista activity in the 1950s...
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