The House on 92nd Street (1945)

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Barré Lyndon (screenplay) and
Charles G. Booth (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 September 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Film-Noir | Drama

Tagline:

The F.B.I.'s own tense, terrific story behind the protection of the ATOMIC BOMB!

Plot:

Bill Dietrich becomes a double agent for the FBI in a Nazi spy ring.

Plot Keywords:

Espionage | Spy | FBI | Semi Documentary | Nazi

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 win

Cast

William Eythe	...	Bill Dietrich
Lloyd Nolan	...	Agent George A. Briggs
Signe Hasso	...	Elsa Gebhardt
Gene Lockhart	...	Charles Ogden Roper
Leo G. Carroll	...	Col. Hammersohn
Lydia St. Clair	...	Johanna Schmidt
William Post Jr.	...	Walker (as William Post)
Harry Bellaver	...	Max Cobura
Bruno Wick	...	Adolphe Lange
Harro Meller	...	Conrad Arnulf
Charles Wagenheim	...	Gus Huzmann
Alfred Linder	...	Adolph Kline
Renee Carson	...	Luise Vadja

Also Known As:

Now It Can Be Told (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #10939)

Filming Locations:

53 East 93rd Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The film is loosely based on the case of Duquesne Spy Ring headed by Frederick Joubert Duquesne and the work of real life double agent William G. Sebold.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the agents are preparing to do the first survey of the house they are wearing CD (Civil Defense) arm bands on their right arms. The next scene shows them approaching the house and the arm bands are now on their left arms.

Movie Connections:

Followed by The Street with No Name (1948)

Soundtrack:

Tra-La-La-La

Viewed as a period piece, semi-documentary about Nazi espionage still holds interest

This is the story of how the FBI supposedly cracked a Nazi espionage ring on the trail of Manhattan Project (the A-Bomb) in the early years of World War II. As a movie, its chief significance is that it kicked off a spate of semi-documentary movies paying tribute to one or another of the U.S. government's law enforcement agencies and celebrating Our Tax Dollars at Work. Such films became a staple of the noir cycle; a few of them even achieved distinction (T-Men, for instance).

William Eythe, a young American, is recruited by and trained in Germany to be a spy; in fact he works as a double agent for the FBI. The film, shot largely on location, traces the actions of the nest of vipers on New York's upper east side. Their unofficial master seems to be Signe Hasso, under cover of running a chic dress boutique. Her opposite number, who runs Eythe, is Lloyd Nolan (who was to reprise his role as Inspector Briggs in subsequent films).

The film's period flavor keeps it from seeming too dated, because the spying looks quite primitive to audiences spoiled by James Bond gimmickry and later, even more sophisticated, espionage thrillers. And, from a modern perspective, the smug boastfulness about the Bureau's -- and America's -- infallibility becomes a bit hard to swallow. There's little texture or nuance in the film, but, as a quasi-historical document, it exerts its own fascination.