IMDb > The House on 92nd Street (1945) > IMDb user reviews
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19 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
The First and Best Semi-documentary Film, 17 August 1999
10/10
Author: Shigeharu Mihara (s-mihara@mta.biglobe.ne.jp) from Fujisawa-shi, Japan

I first saw "The House ..." when I was a middle school student, and became an enthusiastic fan of it. I believe this film is the first and best semi-documentary masterpiece ever made. The film's density is high and there are no superfluous scenes. Reed Hadley's narration is strong, persuasive and impressive. The sound quality is also exceptional: motif march music, actual sounds of inside of the FBI and the city, actors voice etc. Black and White cinematography of actual locations is sharp and beautiful. Lloyd Nolan's dependable performance as FBI inspector George A. Briggs, Lydia St. Clair and Alfred Linder's thankless roles, very beautiful Signe Hasso as Elsa Gebhardt ...etc. Gebhardt are all unforgettable. i recommend this masterpiece to all suspense film fans to see. Three years later Lloyd Nolan plays the same role of Briggs in "The Street with No Name", and its motif march music is also same.

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16 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
FBI smashes Nazi spy ring in New York - Don't miss it!, 28 November 1998
9/10
Author: irish44 from Washington, DC

When this film was made in the 1940's, the ultimate evil that is Adolph Hilter and the Nazi movement was still a serious threat to our way of life. Lloyd Nolan, a major star of the 30's and 40's, gives his usual strong performance as FBI Agent Briggs, in charge of the Nazi spy case. Leo G. Carroll steals the movie playing the Nazi spymaster. Enjoy this film and remember why our fathers and grandfathers fought WWII. As a side note, real FBI agents appeared in this movie in support roles at the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, who gave his full co-operation to the producers.

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16 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Outstanding suspense thriller of the war years, 6 December 2003
10/10
Author: John-376 from North Yorkshire, England

A film that must be viewed in the context of its time.

An outstanding suspense thriller that holds your interest to the end when the identity of "Christopher" is confirmed. Excellent location photography gives a stark view of wartime New York. Fine acting by a quality cast and good direction to keep the story moving.

All told, an absorbing film and a fine piece of history.

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15 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Viewed as a period piece, semi-documentary about Nazi espionage still holds interest, 17 June 2002
7/10
Author: bmacv from Western New York

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.

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12 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Exciting, suspenseful, realistic, 17 November 1998
9/10
Author: Morgan D Lee from Onalaska, Texas

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I first saw "House" when I was 10. I thought it was one of the best suspenseful films I had seen to date. The producers had a similiar opinion. They later made another film, bringing back Lloyd Nolan to reprise his character "Briggs." It was a good whodunit. No-one guessed Signe Hasso as Mr. Christopher until the end. Actual newsreel footage was blended with the film to give it that realistic feel. I actually felt that I was privy to a real FBI spy investigation. The film never slowed....thanks to Hathaway's masterful direction. Kudo's also to a great supporting cast.

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9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Breaking the code, 8 June 2005
7/10
Author: jotix100 from New York

This semi documentary film, shows the FBI at work in those early days of the European conflict. Henry Hathaway, the director, focus on the work behind the scenes of a group of German spies, operating in New York and how the FBI is able to infiltrate the group.

The film, as seen today, still holds the viewer's attention, although the technology is obsolete by today standards. We are given a suspenseful story about the group that established the base of operations in the house on 92nd Street and Madison Avenue in the Manhattan of the 40s. The crisp black and white cinematography by Norbert Brodine still looks pristine and sharp.

The cast headed by Lloyd Nolan as Briggs, do a good job under Mr. Hathaway's direction. Best of all is Signe Hasso as Elsa Gebhart, the designing woman with a lot of secrets. Leo G. Carroll is also seen as one of the spies. Gene Lockhart also has a minor role.

It was fun to watch uncredited New York based actors in the background such as E.G. Marshall, Vincent Gardenia, Paul Ford, among others making small contributions to the film.

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10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Good Period Piece, 9 February 2003
Author: harry-76 from Cleveland, Ohio

The highly gifted natural and trained talent of Lloyd Nolan adorns this story of espionage and counterespionage in the US just prior to and after WWII was declared.

Playing a key FBI agent, Nolan displays the totally convincing work he rendered throughout his career. He heads a strong cast: Signe Hasso and Leo G. Carroll offer solid performances, and William Ethye is a good leading man.

Director Henry Hathaway mixes in authentic newsreel footage with care and balance. The result is a well done docudrama of the mid 40s.

It looks as though 20th Century Fox made a pact with the FBI for this project, with almost the complete Bureau being utilized for the shoot. The films emerges as a supreme tribute to the branch, with Chief Hoover's name frequently in evidence.

The work technically qualifies as propaganda, in which patriotic appreciation and support for the war effort is forthrightly projected.

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16 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
Classic of the genre., 24 May 2005
6/10
Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico

It really IS a classic of the genre, but the problem is that the genre itself is so dated as not to be taken seriously anymore. That happens to genres. Would you watch a Western in which the good guy wears a white hat and the bad guy wears a black hat and one "calls the other out" and they have a mano-a-mano shootout in the middle of the dusty street and the good guy wins and gets the girl? I mean, that's asking a lot of a modern audience.

This film was one of a series of semi-documentaries that came out with the end of the war. Often, as here, Henry Hathaway was the director and the stentorian baritone Reed Hadley was the narrator. I can't vouch for the historical accuracy of the plot, although regardless of the facts I'm sure J. Edgar Hoover was tickled pink when he saw it. Hoover, President-for-Life of the FBI, was a media savvy character. Early in his career he had a skilled partner in Melvin Purvis, the guy who tracked down Dillinger. Such rivalry was not to be tolerated. Purvis's part in the affair, in fact in the FBI, was purged like Akhenaten's until Hoover became the hero. Purvis quit in disgust. Hoover refused to cooperate with Warner's "G-Men" because Jimmy Cagney patronized a saloon, but he gave the FBI's all to this film because the FBI was morally upright and flawless.

One scene was of particular interest. A real Nazi spy insists on testing the American counterspy's radio set to see if it can actually reach Hamburg. It doesn't. It transmits directly to a nearby FBI station which then relays the information to Germany, in a slightly altered form. The FBI operator hears the Nazi calling. He looks up and says, "That isn't Bill. I know his fist." A "fist" is the particular style that an individual operator uses in sending Morse code. It's about as distinctive as his handwriting. I was a radio operator for a few years in the Coast Guard and had a great fist. Most of the other men at my station set their keys to automatic "fast" so they could sound hot. Only they overreached and wound up sending erratically and making a lot of errors. I set mine to "slow" and developed a fist that was heaven to listen to and easy to read. Two Coast Guard radiomen from a ship visited the station in dress blues one afternoon and asked who "LL" was -- those were my sign-off letters. They came over to my console and one said, "We just wanted to tell you that it's a pleasure to copy you." The two men shook my hand, the three of us blushed, and they made a hurried exit, because real men don't say things like that to one another.

Pardon me, that may have been what you call "off topic." Oh, yes, the movie. Alas,the conventions of the genre demand that the Nazis be evil in every respect. Worse than that, they're rude. When the American counterspy is introduced to them, they don't shake his hand. They don't even greet him, they just scowl. None of them is in love, none of them has a home, none has a dog or a cat or collects stamps. They sacrifice one another for the cause at the drop of a solecism and -- well, you get the picture.

The conventions doom the characters as human beings. Loyd Nolan and Signe Hasso are the most watchable, but all of the performances are colorless. Even the hero is dull, despite the danger he often finds himself in.

It's still an interesting and exciting flick, once you adapt to its weaknesses. Fascinating to see the way in which two-way mirrors are presented as the high-tech novelty they were at the time. And the pre-computer FBI's fingerprint storage -- "Five THOUSAND fingerprints on file!", Hadley announces proudly.

It's worth catching if it is convenient.

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8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Fond Memories of the House, 4 November 2005
8/10
Author: Hypnotape from United States

I'm glad one of my favorite movies The House on 92nd Street has been released on DVD and to read the reactions others have made about it. I first saw this movie when it was first released and I was about 11 years old. It made a great impression on me at the time. Of course it is much older now and so am I. My reaction to the revelation of the identity of Mr. Christopher came as an almost physical shock. I should add that at the time this movie came out the war had just ended and the bomb had been dropped only months before, and the radio made much of the nuclear race between Germany and the United States, so the 'now it can be told' aspect of the movie had a lot more meaning then. Also, we weren't very ambivalent about who the good guys and the bad guys were in the war (that didn't happen until Vietnam). I can see that the technology that seemed so cutting edge then is simplistic and dated by today's standards, but that doesn't hurt the movie if you take it in the context of its time. One comment I'd like to make: when Elsa first saw Dietrich's altered credentials she was rightly suspicious and sent for confirmation by courier from Hamburg. In the meantime he continued to operate for what seemed like months and the war started. How long did to get that confirmation anyway? By the way, I've seen the House and it was on 93rd street.

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
One of the best espionage stories ever!, 18 July 2005
10/10
Author: mail-671 from United Kingdom

Fox released this along with "SunValley Serenade" = what a great 3hrs of entertainment! I love this movie even though there's no more guessing about "Mr Christopher". The direction is punched straight at one right from the opening typed credits with each beat of the commanding FBI March theme which pervades each dramatic move in the gripping tale of its dedicated team led by Lloyd Nolan in one of his most popular roles to smash a nazi spy ring & its bunch of thugs using a young Volunteer,William Eythe, to infiltrate the gang as a radio technician at serious risk to his life until his cover is finally blown,to a shoot-out finale & the unmasking of the stranger in the patent leather shoes first seen following a road "accident" at Bowling Green. No time for romance in this slick story - just plain factual action and we are kept informed all the way by top narrator,Reed Hadley whose stentorian tones would become familiar in a number of later semidocumentaries. Played out as an extended dramatised March Of Time episode a technique that easily embraced several later successful crime thrillers - T-Men,Street With No Name,Kiss Of Death & He Walked By Night (later developed by Jack Webb into the hugely influential Dragnet). With the dropping of two A-bombs on Japan,the hitherto top secret Manhatten Project, the McGuffin of the plot was out and by 1945 its story could be told. Generations on world events & history have overtaken the film which still may be enjoyed for its acting & its use of then revolutionary FBI techniques like the 2-way mirror & the huge fingerprint files hall. Everyone's favourite slimy,sneaky villain, Gene Lockhart has a particularly telling part as the last bit of the jigsaw for the baffled FBI, a seemingly innocent traitorous professor with the rare ability to carry pages of top atomic secrets in his head for transfer to the enemy. The final message that not one single enemy agent escaped the FBI net is given against real newsreel scenes of one of their large roundups. Sadly the star, William Eythe failed to achieve any significance dying at age 39 from acute hepatitis, brought on by alcoholism. Apparently the real House (long gone) was on entirely another street.

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