This film begins in a small diner in Southern California right off of Highway 101 which runs alongside the Pacific coast. The owner of the diner is a World War 2 combat veteran named "George" (Keenan Wynn) who does his best to keep his slovenly cook he's nicknamed "Slob" (Lee Marvin) from harassing his attractive young waitress "Kotty" (Terry Moore). As far as the customers are concerned the usual clientele consists of a man by the name of "Eddie" (Whit Bissell) who served in combat with George but suffers from post-traumatic stress and a nuclear scientist named "Professor Sam Bastion" (Frank Lovejoy) who works at a top-secret military installation a little further down the road. At first glance everything seems normal but what nobody realizes is that Slob is actually a communist agent who is in the process of collecting secret information from Professor Bastion to send back to the Soviet Union-and he is willing to kill anyone who discovers his identity or gets in his way. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a pretty good spy-drama which incorporated the fear brought on by the discovery of the atom bomb combined with that of Soviet aggression in a bold and direct manner. Of course, because of this particular subject matter the film seems quite dated but it is still entertaining in its own right with good performances by the aforementioned Lee Marvin, Keenan Wynn and Terry Moore. That said, it's worth a look for viewers interested in a film of this sort and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.
Review of Shack Out on 101
