Spy Hunt (1950) User Reviews

The snowy wilderness makes for a great black and white thriller.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 4 December 2018]

Over the years in the movies, microfilm has been pretty much hidden everywhere as a way of hiding it from the enemy, and here, it is in the collar of one of two dangerous black panthers. A bit of documentary narration at the beginning goes into the detail about that nature of the beautiful large cat, and it's not one you want to tangle with, even over its diamond collar that contains valuable secrets. A train accident with the two cats aboard causes them to escape, and good agent Marta Toren joins forces with U.S. agent Howard Duff to find the panthers before the microfilm falls into the hands of enemy agents. This takes them out into the middle of nowhere, on occasion spotting each of the panthers through their binoculars and the telescopic lens of their rifles. But as they aim preparing to fire, something always happens, making it appear that someone among their group doesn't want them to have access to the valuable collar or its even more valuable secrets.

Compact and tense, this cold war spy drama is very well done, the type of crowd pleaser that had post World War II audiences enticed by all the intrigue going on in the world around them. It is never identified what group the enemy agents belong to, but with supporting actors like Walter Slezak, Philip Dorn and Kurt Krueger, the audience is kept guessing which ones are the good guys and which ones are the bad guys. One of the great scenes occurs when Toren and Duff track the collared panther to a cabin in the middle of nowhere and Toren endeavors to lock the panther in so it won't escape. There seems to be a cut scene though, because when we next see the panther, it is already in a cage as everybody surrounding it wonders how they are going to get the darned collar off. That's a minor mishap, however, because the rest of the film is exciting and filled with tension.

Here, Kitty, Kitty!

[boblipton · 6/10 · 30 June 2023]

Howard Duff has picked up a couple of black panthers -- the animal kind -- which he is delivering by train to a circus in Germany. Little does he know that spy Märta Torén has hidden important microfilm in one of their collars. Other spies have gotten wind of this, so they derail the railroad car he is traveling in with the beasts, sending him tumbling down a Swiss mountain. When he awakes, he is in a hotel being tended by the owner, Doctor Walter Slezak, and various characters, all made suspicious by their non-American accents are showing up. Are they there for a newspaper story, or to sketch the beasts, hunt them, or to get the microfilm?

The story of how the term 'maguffin' came to mean something in a film that everyone wants, but it doesn't really matter what it is, is an joke. Two men are traveling in a railroad car. One points to a device the other has. "What's that?" "That's a maguffin." "What's a maguffin." "It's a device for hunting tigers in the Scottish highlands." "There are no tigers in the Scottish highlands." "Then that's never a maguffin."

I'm pretty sure that's the impetus behind the Victor Canning novel this movie is based on. Making them panthers in Switzerland was just intended to obscure the origins. Director George Sherman continues the joke by using he opening music from the Universal Sherlock Holmes series as the opening music to this one, but mostly he handles the story in a straightforward fashion. It's moderately suspenseful. With Philip Friend, Robert Douglas, Philip Dorn, and Kurt Kreuger.

Spy Hunt

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 13 November 2023]

A top secret microfilm is smuggled via a cigarette and a meatball (don't ask!) into the collar of one of a pair of black panthers being transported by "Quain" (Howard Duff) from Europe to the United States. When their train is derailed and the panthers escape, "Quain" and his newly found journalist pal "Catherine" (Märta Torén) - whom we know to be not quite all she seems - soon find themselves at a local mountain hotel where the prospects of a panther hunt attract both the army and a few colonial-types who fancy a bit of a big game hunt. The arrival of "Paradou" (Robert Douglas) reinforces the threat to the beasts and to anyone who gets in the way of those malevolently determined to secure this (pretty robust) little document. What now ensues doesn't auger very well for these lithe and beautiful creatures, nor for "Quain" and "Catherine" either unless they can keep alert and stay one step ahead of their rivals. The beginning of this is quite fun, the middle portion quite intriguing, but the concluding third of the film is all just a little bit too formulaic. The presence of Douglas does little to enhance any sense of jeopardy, but he does always manage to exude a degree of nastiness and that compensates a little before the denouement. The production is rudimentary - lots of fairly obvious green-screen effects that suggest they never left California, but in the end it's a watchable, amiable, crime thriller that passes seventy-five minutes effortlessly enough.

A decent story...with a huge logical problem with the script.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 9 September 2023]

The story begins in some country behind the Iron Curtain. Evidence that the rightful leader of the nation was murdered and was replaced by a communist stooge is being taken out of the country by some spies. However, the secret police are right behind and they apprehend most of the conspirators...but don't manage to get the microfilm with the evidence. Soon, one of the spies comes up with an insane solution for how to get the information out to the Free World...she sticks it in the collar of a nasty black panther headed to Paris on a train. The secret police learn of this and derail the train...but the pair of panthers manage to make it to Switzerland...along with the man who was paid to escort them to Paris and then the States, Steve Quain (Howard Duff). Can the good guys manage to get their hands on the collar before the forces of evil do?

While the story was mostly interesting, there was one HUGE problem with the plot. In the story, the pair of panthers (also called pumas or mountain lions) are supposedly black. There is no such thing as an animal called a black panther and the species has never had a documented case of a dark or melanistic big cat...NONE. The writer obviously confused this with black jaguars or black leopards...which do actually exist. So, to make the story work, you need to ignore this as well as that the filmmakers actually painted a pair of pumas for the film! Poor animals...especially since something similar was done while making the film "The Beast Master"...and the paint ended up killing the tiger they painted black for the movie!

Overall, a decent time-passer...nothing more.

One of the forgotten GOOD early spy films.

[joewright1935 · 8/10 · 25 August 2003]

The film is tense and exciting throughout. A panther has a message inserted into a collar around its neck, a message which is of great interest to some questionable characters. The panther escapes its cage and is tracked by Howard Duff, representing the U.S. and by parties who represent the subversives (Ivan Tresault being one of them). The entire film deals with the search and provides some very tense moments. Marta Toren is the beauty who has questionable credentials which have one guessing as to which side she is on. A good film which deserves some recognition.



J.W.

Panther hunt

[AAdaSC · 4/10 · 6 April 2024]

A miniature microfiche with important information for the Allies in WW2 needs to be smuggled out of Europe and Marta Toren (Catherine) slots it into the collar of one of two panthers that are being transported to the UK by Howard Duff (Steve). However, the train that is transporting them is hijacked and the panthers escape into the European mountainous and snowy terrain. Their position is located and a cluster of individuals turn up at a hotel nearby, all with an interest in the story - an artist, a journalist, etc. There must be a spy from the enemy amongst these characters but who is it?

It's not the best quality film and some of the male characters look the same so it can be confusing. The majority of the film seems to be running around after panthers. We have dogs chasing after them and shots of panthers running about and snarling. Then more scenes with dogs running about. It's a bit like a nature documentary at times. We get a tense scene at the film's end when Toren plays out a bluff but that is the only noteworthy part of the film. There is an English journalist amongst the group who will have you cringing or laughing every time he speaks. What plummy nonsense! And you may not guess the bad guys.

Overall, the film was ok to watch in a Sherlock Holmes mystery kind of way but I kept wondering when it was just going to end. I prefer "The Pink Panther" to this panther malarky.

Spies galore at the mercy of two escaped black panthers in the Swiss Alps

[clanciai · 9/10 · 9 August 2019]

This is in almost every aspect a truly amazing film, and there are many odd things contributing to make it unique in its way. The main players and attractions are not Howard Duff and Marta Toren with all their retinue but the two black panthers, that break loose from a train in Switzerland and terrorize the entire landscape, forcing the army to go to war against them and shoot them dead at any cost, while they are invaluable to Howard Duff, their keeper who lost them, and Marta Toren, who used one of them for a spy message. The intrigue is equally masterly contrived, many parts getting involved in this thing, and several of them not hesitating to kill for their business. Walter Slezak, as the inn-keeper, is the one outsider who is totally innocent and provides a charming character for a change and picturesque addition to the stew. It's difficult to follow all the ways and intrigues and turnings of various spies and agents, which it is impossible to discern immediately who is on which side, but some of them come out alive. It's a delicious piece of cake quite out of the ordinary, there is no other spy thriller like it, but its most rewarding qualities are the marvellous shots from the hunting parties in the Swiss Alps, reminding of great natural documentaries, like those of the Swede Arne Sucksdorff, and also of Frank Borzage's "Mortal Storm" ten years earlier.

Good spy yarn with stunningly beautiful landscape, panthers

[adrianovasconcelos · 8/10 · 15 June 2023]

George Sherman, better known as a second feature or assistant director despite having an A flick like COMANCHEROS in his curriculum, comes up with a visually spectacular spy yarn in SPY HUNT, further enhanced by the entrancingly beautiful Marta Toren, herself a spy trying to conceal a negative with supposedly crucial data.

Although what the negative might contain, who it might belong to, and who the information is intended for is never clarified, it is safe to assume that either the action relates to WWII and Germanic-looking heavies are after it, or this is already the Cold War boiling over in the Italian/Swiss Alps.

Regardless of the conflict, it is a riveting film with credible dialogue, good acting from Duff, Friend, Douglas, Donn and Slezak, here playing against type a non-sleazy medical doctor and inn owner. The show, though, is stolen by the mesmerizing beauty of Toren and the panthers roaming wild over lovingly shot rocky, snowy, or arborous landscape. Great action sequences involving the felines, including a fight with a bloodhound. Truly wonderful cinematography by Irving Glassberg.

Well worth watching: 8/10.

Entertaining little movie!

[RodrigAndrisan · 8/10 · 31 March 2024]

The story is very predictable but everything is well done so 74 minutes pass very quickly. Especially since there are some very good actors, all of them, Märta Torén, Howard Duff, Philip Friend, Robert Douglas, Philip Dorn, Walter Slezak, Otto Waldis, etc. Plus, no joke, there are also two dogs that play the role of followers very well. And, even better, two black panthers (if they really exist...), who actually perfectly play their roles to be hunted by everyone, people, all the characters, and the two dogs. I don't know how they managed to film those scenes with the panthers. And, all in the picturesque setting of the mountains of Switzerland.