The 49th Man

As if taking its cue from the topical "docu-dramas" produced by Louis De Rochemont - Henry Hathaway's The House on 92nd Street (1945) and Alfred Werker's Walk East on Beacon! (1952) - Columbia's The 49th Man (1953) makes use of copious amounts of library footage and ominous narration (courtesy of an uncredited Gerald Mohr, then the voice of the radio's Philip Marlowe and The Whistler) to sell its own tale of global atomic paranoia. Produced by the head of the studio's B-unit, Sam Katzman (in partnership with Charles H. Schneer, prior to his lucrative partnership with stop motion effects man Ray Harryhausen), The 49th Man tells the labyrinthine tale of a plot to smuggle fissionable material into the United States, ostensibly to detonate an atomic bomb in the middle of a major metropolitan hub. Largely forgotten today, the film remains innovative in being the first to broach the subject of nuclear terrorism. Long before his association as a director of underwater and wildlife scenes, Ivan Tors was a playwright who found work after his war service in the script department at Columbia. The first person to show interest in Tors' original story, then called 49 Men, was talent agent Abner J. Greshler. Best remembered for assembling the powerhouse comic duo of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, Greshler dabbled in film production in the early Fifties, even directing the silent comedy compilation film Yesterday and Today (1953), released by United Artists. Greshler bought the first option on Tors' property in May 1951, a deal brokered by Ingo Preminger, brother of director Otto Preminger. (At the time, Tors' play Wind Without Rain was running at Hollywood's Circle Theatre, starring Ann Robinson and a young Martin Milner.) A year later, Greshler sold his rights to Columbia, at which time the project was put into the hands of Katzman's Esskay Picture Corporation (later Clover Productions) and assigned to workhorse director Fred F. Sears. The 49th Man was a star vehicle for John Ireland, a former Columbia contract player who went free agent after his Academy Award-nominated turn in All the King's Men (1949). Ireland enjoyed lead roles in low budget and independent features, including Roger Corman's The Fast and the Furious (1955) and the British whodunit The Glass Cage (1955), a coproduction of Hammer and Lippert Films. Ivan Tors' original story was reworked by screenwriter Harry Essex, who that same year fleshed out Ray Bradbury's treatment for It Came from Outer Space (1953) at Universal. The 49th Man was novel in its day for offering moviegoers a double-twist ending... one that was telegraphed in almost every review of the film upon its release in May 1953. Backing Ireland is a rich supporting cast that includes Robert Foulk, Richard Denning, future Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall, Barney Phillips (later the cop on the case in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, 1957) and Mike Connors, still using his "Touch" Connors stage name, a remnant of his days as a UCLA basketball player. Principal photography for 49 Men lasted just eleven days, beginning on December 12, 1952 and wrapping three days shy of Christmas. The title change to The 49th Man was announced in the trades in early January 1953. The film received fair-to-middling reviews (a glowing exception being The Los Angeles Times), with some critics griping at what they perceived to be an overly complicated plot but most agreeing that it was acceptable second feature material. Coming less than a decade after the first atomic tests within the borders of the United States and well within the initial grace period of denial regarding the consequences of atom-splitting, The 49th Man plays a bit differently to contemporary eyes and sensibilities well-acquainted with the long-term effects of radiation poisoning. The film's synopsis, issued by the Columbia publicity department on Christmas Eve 1952, ends on a chillingly naïve note: "The giant atomic mushroom spreads its energy harmlessly, a grim warning, however, of the tragedy that might have been." Hollywood would learn the hard way about "harmless" atomic fallout, with a quarter of the cast and crew of RKO's The Conqueror (1956) succumbing to cancer (among them stars John Wayne and Susan Hayward and director Dick Powell) after filming a scant hundred miles downwind of Operation Upshot-Knothole. Comprised of eleven nuclear tests conducted at the US Government's Nevada Test Site over a three month period, Upshot-Knothole was initiated just as The 49th Man hit the cinemas in the spring of 1953. Producer: Sam Katzman Director: Fred F. Sears Screenplay: Harry Essex; Ivan Tors (story) Cinematography: Lester White Art Direction: Paul Palmentola Film Editing: William A. Lyon Cast: John Ireland (Investigator John Williams), Richard Denning (Chief Investigator Paul Reagan), Suzanne Dalbert (Margo Wayne), Robert Foulk (Commander Jackson), Touch Connors (Lt. Magrew), Richard Avonde (Buzz Olin), William R. Klein (FBI Agent in Montage), Cicely Browne (Blonde Woman), Tommy Farrell (Agent Reynolds), Joseph Mell (Box of Taffy Man at Penn Station). BW-74m. by Richard Harland Smith