The 49th Man
Encyclopedia
The 49th Man is a 1953 American
thriller film released by Columbia Pictures
, directed by Fred F. Sears
and starring John Ireland
, Richard Denning
, Suzanne Dalbert, Peter Marshall, Robert Foulk and Mike Connors
(credited as "Touch Conners"). The Cold War
thriller was based on a story by Ivan Tors
and the screenplay written by Harry Essex
.
The film's title is a cryptic reference to the men in the film hired to smuggle 48 nuclear weapon
s components into the United States as part of a secret war game
and the unexpected 49th man, using the war game as cover, smuggling in a real atom bomb as part of a plot to destroy an American city.
, investigators find a mysterious machine component that they turn over to the nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory
for identification. Scientists there declare that it is one component of an advanced portable nuclear weapon
designed by an unknown, presumably hostile power. The discovery prompts Paul Reagan (Richard Denning
), chief of the Security Investigation Division (SID), to send agent John Williams (John Ireland
) to investigate the source of these components and to prevent them from being assembled into a functioning weapon. As more parts are smuggled into the United States, the investigation expands and a pattern begins to emerge which points to Marseilles, France.
After uranium
is found welded to the hull of a U.S. Navy submarine in New London, Connecticut
, Williams continues his investigation aboard that submarine, now bound for the French port, undercover as a naval officer preparing a training film. While in Marseilles, he learns that civilians Margo Wayne (Suzanne Dalbert) and her husband Leo Wayne (Peter Marshall) are working with clarinet player Buzz Olin (Richard Avonde) and an unknown member of the submarine's crew to smuggle the parts in special metal cases built by Pierre Neff (George Dee). After a fight near the dock, Williams believes that Lt. Magrew (Mike Connors
) and Commander Jackson (Robert Foulk) are in on the plot. He orders them arrested, only to be betrayed by his colleague, agent Andy (Robert Hunter), and taken into custody himself.
Arriving in Washington, D.C.
, Williams escapes from his captors and contacts Reagan at SID headquarters where he finds Jackson and Magrew waiting for him in Reagan's office. The whole exercise was a war game
, put on in secret by the Defense Department
to test the nation's readiness for a subversive attack. However, the Waynes and Olin are not part of the war game. They have used Neff to construct 4 cases, in addition to the 48 ordered by the naval officers, and smuggled their own portable nuclear weapon into the United States. With less than 48 hours before the bomb's scheduled detonation at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Williams and his team track Buzz Olin and the Waynes to the San Francisco area. After a desperate attempt to escape with the bomb and destroy San Francisco by air, Leo Wayne is killed and Jackson has just two hours to attempt to defuse the bomb while Williams flies towards Nevada. This fails and with less than a minute to go the bomb is dropped from the plane to detonate over Frenchman Flat
at the Nevada Test Site
. Crisis averted, the film ends with the narrator intoning, "...and three o'clock is just the middle of another afternoon in the life of a city."
Notable actors in uncredited roles include Robert Bice
as a detective, Heinie Conklin
as a satchel courier, Boyd Morgan
as Corrigan, Bud Osborne
as the courier in the bar, Steve Pendleton
as a technician, and Gerald Mohr
as the film's narrator.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
thriller film released by Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, directed by Fred F. Sears
Fred F. Sears
Frederick Francis Sears was an American film actor and director. Though a marginalized figure in 1950s cinema, he created 52 feature films in a number of genres for Columbia Pictures from 1949 to 1957, before his death at the age of 44....
and starring John Ireland
John Ireland (actor)
John Benjamin Ireland was an actor and film director.-Biography:Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he was raised in New York City from the age of 18. He started out in minor stage roles on Broadway...
, Richard Denning
Richard Denning
Richard Denning , was an American actor who starred in such movies as Creature from the Black Lagoon and An Affair to Remember , and on radio with Lucille Ball as her husband George Cooper in My Favorite Husband , the forerunner of television's I Love Lucy, for which Denning was replaced by Ball's...
, Suzanne Dalbert, Peter Marshall, Robert Foulk and Mike Connors
Mike Connors
Mike Connors is an American actor best known for playing detective Joe Mannix in the CBS television series, Mannix. Before that, he had played a crime-fighting investigator, wielding a .38 handgun hidden in his back, in another CBS series, Tightrope.-Early life:Connors was born Krekor Ohanian in...
(credited as "Touch Conners"). The Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
thriller was based on a story by Ivan Tors
Ivan Tors
Ivan Tors was a Hungarian playwright, film director, screenwriter, and film and television producer with an emphasis on non-violent but exciting science fiction, underwater filmed television and films, and films about animals...
and the screenplay written by Harry Essex
Harry Essex
Harry Essex was a prolific American screenwriter. He was born on 29 November 1910 in New York City. He died on 5 February 1997 in Los Angeles. His career spanned more than fifty years...
.
The film's title is a cryptic reference to the men in the film hired to smuggle 48 nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s components into the United States as part of a secret war game
War Game
War Game or War Games refer normally to: wargaming, a recreational game that simulates a military operation. It can also be a:* Military exercise* Military simulation, live or computer warfare simulations to develop real-world military strategies...
and the unexpected 49th man, using the war game as cover, smuggling in a real atom bomb as part of a plot to destroy an American city.
Plot
After a fatal car crash in Lordsburg, New MexicoLordsburg, New Mexico
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 3,379 people, 1,220 households, and 854 families residing in the city. The population density was 403.1 people per square mile . There were 1,414 housing units at an average density of 168.7 per square mile...
, investigators find a mysterious machine component that they turn over to the nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
for identification. Scientists there declare that it is one component of an advanced portable nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
designed by an unknown, presumably hostile power. The discovery prompts Paul Reagan (Richard Denning
Richard Denning
Richard Denning , was an American actor who starred in such movies as Creature from the Black Lagoon and An Affair to Remember , and on radio with Lucille Ball as her husband George Cooper in My Favorite Husband , the forerunner of television's I Love Lucy, for which Denning was replaced by Ball's...
), chief of the Security Investigation Division (SID), to send agent John Williams (John Ireland
John Ireland (actor)
John Benjamin Ireland was an actor and film director.-Biography:Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he was raised in New York City from the age of 18. He started out in minor stage roles on Broadway...
) to investigate the source of these components and to prevent them from being assembled into a functioning weapon. As more parts are smuggled into the United States, the investigation expands and a pattern begins to emerge which points to Marseilles, France.
After uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
is found welded to the hull of a U.S. Navy submarine in New London, Connecticut
New London, Connecticut
New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut....
, Williams continues his investigation aboard that submarine, now bound for the French port, undercover as a naval officer preparing a training film. While in Marseilles, he learns that civilians Margo Wayne (Suzanne Dalbert) and her husband Leo Wayne (Peter Marshall) are working with clarinet player Buzz Olin (Richard Avonde) and an unknown member of the submarine's crew to smuggle the parts in special metal cases built by Pierre Neff (George Dee). After a fight near the dock, Williams believes that Lt. Magrew (Mike Connors
Mike Connors
Mike Connors is an American actor best known for playing detective Joe Mannix in the CBS television series, Mannix. Before that, he had played a crime-fighting investigator, wielding a .38 handgun hidden in his back, in another CBS series, Tightrope.-Early life:Connors was born Krekor Ohanian in...
) and Commander Jackson (Robert Foulk) are in on the plot. He orders them arrested, only to be betrayed by his colleague, agent Andy (Robert Hunter), and taken into custody himself.
Arriving in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Williams escapes from his captors and contacts Reagan at SID headquarters where he finds Jackson and Magrew waiting for him in Reagan's office. The whole exercise was a war game
War Game
War Game or War Games refer normally to: wargaming, a recreational game that simulates a military operation. It can also be a:* Military exercise* Military simulation, live or computer warfare simulations to develop real-world military strategies...
, put on in secret by the Defense Department
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
to test the nation's readiness for a subversive attack. However, the Waynes and Olin are not part of the war game. They have used Neff to construct 4 cases, in addition to the 48 ordered by the naval officers, and smuggled their own portable nuclear weapon into the United States. With less than 48 hours before the bomb's scheduled detonation at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Williams and his team track Buzz Olin and the Waynes to the San Francisco area. After a desperate attempt to escape with the bomb and destroy San Francisco by air, Leo Wayne is killed and Jackson has just two hours to attempt to defuse the bomb while Williams flies towards Nevada. This fails and with less than a minute to go the bomb is dropped from the plane to detonate over Frenchman Flat
Frenchman Flat
Frenchman Flat is a Tonopah Basin landform used as a nuclear weapons detonation site at the Nevada Test Site , some from Las Vegas, in the United States. Frenchman Flat is a dry lake, an alkaline desert depression which spans Area 5 and Area 11 within NTS...
at the Nevada Test Site
Nevada Test Site
The Nevada National Security Site , previously the Nevada Test Site , is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas...
. Crisis averted, the film ends with the narrator intoning, "...and three o'clock is just the middle of another afternoon in the life of a city."
Cast
- John IrelandJohn Ireland (actor)John Benjamin Ireland was an actor and film director.-Biography:Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he was raised in New York City from the age of 18. He started out in minor stage roles on Broadway...
as SID agent John Williams - Richard DenningRichard DenningRichard Denning , was an American actor who starred in such movies as Creature from the Black Lagoon and An Affair to Remember , and on radio with Lucille Ball as her husband George Cooper in My Favorite Husband , the forerunner of television's I Love Lucy, for which Denning was replaced by Ball's...
as SID chief Paul Reagan - Suzanne Dalbert as Margo Wayne
- Peter Marshall as Leo Wayne
- Robert Foulk as Commander Jackson
- Mike ConnorsMike ConnorsMike Connors is an American actor best known for playing detective Joe Mannix in the CBS television series, Mannix. Before that, he had played a crime-fighting investigator, wielding a .38 handgun hidden in his back, in another CBS series, Tightrope.-Early life:Connors was born Krekor Ohanian in...
as Ensign Magrew (credited as "Touch Conners") - Richard Avonde as Buzz Olin
- Robert Hunter as SID agent Andy, alias Andre
- Tommy FarrellTommy FarrellTommy Farrell was an American supporting actor who appeared in over 80 films between 1944 and 1979, according to the Internet Movie Database. Sometimes he is credited as Tommie Farrell or Tom Farrell.-Career:...
as SID agent Reynolds - Chris AlcaideChris AlcaideChristopher "Chris" Alcaide was an American actor particularly known for his role in television westerns. He surfaced to national attention as Deputy Joshua Tate in the 1956 film Gunslinger, co-starring Beverly Garland as a woman marshal.In 2003, Alcaide was among recipients, including the Sons of...
as SID agent Manning - Jean Del ValJean Del ValJean Del Val was a French-born actor. He has also been credited as Jean Gauthier and Jean Gautier.He has played roles during the Hollywood silent era, beginning with The Fortunes of Fifi in 1917...
as SID agent Maurice Leroux - George Dee as Pierre Neff
Notable actors in uncredited roles include Robert Bice
Robert Bice
Robert Bice , was an American television and film actor. Bice was born in Dallas, Texas, United States.-Career:Bice appeared in 199 films and television programs between 1943 and 1967...
as a detective, Heinie Conklin
Heinie Conklin
Heinie Conklin was an American actor of the silent film era, who appeared in nearly 400 films. Claimed to be one of the original Keystone Kops, Conklin's silent screen makeup consisted heavy eyebrow lining and a thinnish, upside-down, painted-on variation of Kaiser Wilhelm's moustache...
as a satchel courier, Boyd Morgan
Boyd Morgan
Boyd Franklin Morgan was an American football running back in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins...
as Corrigan, Bud Osborne
Bud Osborne
Bud Osborne was an American film actor. He appeared in over 600 films and television programs between 1912 and 1963.Osborne was born in Knox County, Texas, and died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack...
as the courier in the bar, Steve Pendleton
Steve Pendleton
Steve Pendleton was an American film actor. He appeared in over 150 films between 1923 and 1960. He died in Pasadena, California, aged 76.-Selected filmography:* Manslaughter * Seas Beneath...
as a technician, and Gerald Mohr
Gerald Mohr
Gerald Mohr was an American radio, film and television character actor who appeared in over 4,000 radio plays, 73 films and over 100 television shows....
as the film's narrator.
Production
- director of photography Lester White, A.S.C.
- art director Paul Palmentola
- film editor William A. Lyon, A.C.E.
- set decorator Louis DiageLouis DiageLouis Diage was an American set decorator. He was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction.-Selected filmography:Diage was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Art Direction:...
- assistant director Milton Feldman
- sound engineer George Cooper
- musical director Mischa BakaleinikoffMischa BakaleinikoffMikhail Romanovich Bakaleinikov or Mischa Bakaleinikoff was a noted musical director, film composer and conductor.-Personal life:Brother to Constantin, Nikolay and Vladimir, Bakaleinikoff was born in Moscow in 1890. He left Russia for the United States in 1926, and joined Columbia Studios's music...
- certificate number 16329
- Western Electric recording
- produced by Sam KatzmanSam KatzmanSam Katzman was an American film producer and director. Born into a poor Jewish family, Katzman went to work as a stage laborer at the age of 13 in the fledgling East Coast film industry...
- associate producer Charles H. SchneerCharles H. SchneerCharles H. Schneer was a film producer most widely known for working with special effects pioneer, Ray Harryhausen. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia and died in Boca Raton, Florida, aged 88....