WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Brucey D This film was the product of two main thoughts; 1) "Lets make a film about Nazi fifth columnists...." and 2) " hang on, let's make the bad guys ex-Nazis who are now Communists instead..." and so a muddled, overly expensive film is born. It would have been bad enough if the second thought had been shortly after the first, but it wasn't; the film had to be re-shot in part, and it shows.This film isn't entirely without merit, but for me the story just doesn't make sense; leave alone the usual business where the bad guys insist on explaining their dark deeds in detail whilst not disposing of the good guys, or taking the opportunity to push the button etc (as seen in countless films ranging from 'The thirty-nine steps' to various Bond outings); here we are expected to believe that one of the main bad guys has comparatively recently been the subject of an exposé in a national magazine, but, er, this didn't immediately alert the bad guys when the writer turns up. Even though they knew all about it.Oh, and while we're at it, you might notice that the good guy gets hit on the head twice, but in exactly the same place each time. What are the chances of that...? Quite high if you are trying to cobble a film together without having to reshoot the whole thing, as it turns out....Just about worth watching if you have an interest in films of this type.

drjgardner This is a fairly ordinary anti-communist film from the early 50s, slightly below the standard of other films from this period like Pickup on South Street (1953), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), I Married a Communist (1950), and My Son John (1952). It falls way short of allegorical anti-communist films such as High Noon (1952) and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), although there are some who will argue that those films are not anti-communist but rather anti-American.In a nutshell, a vacationing magazine reporter stumbles (Elliott Reid) on a plot to destroy America with biological weapons. The devious plot is devised by former Nazi and current Communist Otto Waldis, who is assisted by Raymond Burr.William Cameron Menzies directs, but don't expect to see the marvelous work he did in such films as "The Black Book", "GWTW", "The Thief of Bagdad" and "Duel in the Sun".

utgard14 Matt Corbin (Elliott Reid) is a magazine writer on a fishing trip in Winnoga, Minnesota. He discovers all the fish in the town's lake are dead and the locals are none too friendly. He starts nosing around and finds himself in the middle of a Communist plot to overthrow America with germ warfare. The original story for this had Nazis as the villains instead of Communists. But producer Howard Hughes felt Reds were more timely so the story was changed to Communists who used to be Nazis. Which is all kinds of hilarious if you think about it.Elliott Reid, a fine character actor I've seen in tons of stuff, is an atypical lead but does a solid job. His big romantic scene is a pretty big fail, though. Frank Darien is fun as the elderly general store owner who tries to help Reid. Carla Balenda, no doubt given the female lead by Hughes, offers a bland and forgettable turn here. I don't think she changed facial expressions more than twice. Raymond Burr plays one of the Commies. He's the most famous actor in the movie. The rest of the cast is made up of lesser-known but quality actors, some of which classic movie fans might recognize (Lurene Tuttle, for one). Perhaps the most pleasant surprise about this movie is that it's directed by William Cameron Menzies, legendary production designer whose directorial efforts include Things to Come and Invaders from Mars. Menzies gives this movie a stylish direction lacking in most other '50s Red Scare flicks. The movie looks like a film noir, not a political thriller. It's a beautiful-looking black & white movie. Whether you take the story seriously or not, I don't see how you can deny it's a well-crafted film of its type. It's a reasonably suspenseful thriller with some style and some neat creepy moments late in the film.

bkoganbing I hope that noted set designer William Cameron Menzies who occasionally did direct such classics as Things To Come, had Howard Hughes's check already clearing the bank before embarking on The Whip Hand. Such a film could only have come out of the paranoid years of the beginning of the Cold War. If Joe McCarthy could say there were 205 or 81 or 57 card carrying Communists in the State Department, than why couldn't the Red Menace takeover a town in the Land of a Thousand Lakes, Minnesota.Magazine feature writer Elliott Reid gone to Minnesota for a fishing vacation goes to the town of Winnoga and finds all the fish in the lake are dead and most of the town gone. New people have arrived in the area and are very protective about their privacy. Of course Reid's reporter's instincts are aroused and pretty soon he's like Kevin McCarthy trying to get of the area before the Pod People get him.Just like in Shack Out On 101 where the Communists have set up shop in a hash house near the atomic testing site, the Commies have set up in Minnesota. Reid's only friends are elderly Frank Darien and Carla Ballenda, the sister of one of the scientists working in a laboratory on an island in the middle of the lake.From the fevered mind of Howard Hughes came this warning to the American movie-going public that not only do we have to worry about the Reds conducting germ warfare on Americans, but they're also polluting our streams. I'm sure the Sierra Club was grateful for this film.Raymond Burr is one of the Communist thugs along with his sister Lurene Tuttle. Burr and Tuttle being the professionals they are play it completely straight. All I can say is, WOW.