Those 1950's Communists are at it again but thank goodness the United States has it's top Diplomatic Courier on the case. A diplomatic courier is basically a glorified errand boy for the State Department but in this film he's Tyrone Power defender of freedom and fighter of those commies.
It seems the United States can learn when the Commies will attack Europe. Information that is "three times more explosive then Pearl Harbor" is floating around Europe. For some reason Power races around trying to get this information before the Ruskies can get it, all the while trying to figure out if husky voiced Hildegard Neff is either a commie or a righteous
The whole film is just pretty poor in almost every way. The screenplay by Casey Robinson stumbles along from one sloppy plot point to the next. The film is supposedly set in Europe but it's pretty clear that they sent a second unit over seas with a stand-in for Tyrone Power and had him run around some scenic locations which they then fit into the usual studio back lot settings.
Henry Hathaway was always a good contract director but there was only so much he could do with this kind of film.
The film has a few things going for it in the cast. Patricia Neal is a traitorous American who attempts to seduce Power, she's actually fun. Karl Malden shows up as a military policeman playing his usual second banana role. Last but not least is Lee Marvin as another military policeman. It must have been one of Marvin's very early roles since he has dark hair.
Overall the whole film is pretty pathetic.
97 minutes
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