S2 Ep. 2: The Iron Curtain (1948, William A. Wellman)

Join hosts Jason and Paul for a discussion of William A. Wellman's 1948 spy thriller The Iron Curtain, starring Dana Andrews and Jean Tierney. Regarded as an anti-communist propaganda film, The Iron Curtain was the first major Hollywood studio production to engage directly with the Cold War. The story is based on the memoirs of the Russian spy Igor Gouzenko, who stole documents from the Soviet embasy in Ottawa, where he worked, and defected to Canada. This act of espionage led to the dismantling of a Soviet "atomic spy ring," and the arrests or numerous people both in Canada and the United States. At a time of relative peace post-WWII, the New York Times critic Bosley Crowther considered The Iron Curtain "a highly inflamatory film" and a dangerous provocation. "Hollywood fired its first shot in the 'cold war' against Russia yesterday," Crowther writtes in his review, "just when a faint hope was glimmering that maybe moderation in fact might be achieved."  _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode:  Paul recommends the pro-Soviet Hollywood propaganda film Mission to Moscow (1943; dir. Michael Curtiz)  Jason recommends the 2000 book The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stonor Saunders  _____________________ Please subscribe to the podcast, and don't forget to leave a review! Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonAChristian and Anthony at @tonyjballas (same handles on  BlueSky). Follow Paul on BlueSky at @ptklein.com. Paul writes about movies at www.howtoreadmovies.com. Paul's handle on Letterboxd is https://letterboxd.com/ptklein/; Jason's is https://letterboxd.com/exilemagic/.  _____________________ Logo by Jason Christian  Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).  Please drop us a line anytime at [email protected]. Happy listening!