The Iron Curtain (1948)

The Iron Curtain is a 1948 American thriller film starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney, directed by William A. Wellman. The film was based on the memoirs of Igor Gouzenko. Principal photography was done on location in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada by Charles G. Clarke.

Director – William A. Wellman

Writers – Milton Krims (screenplay), Igor Gouzenko (personal story)

Cast –
Dana Andrews as Igor Gouzenko
Gene Tierney as Anna Gouzenko
June Havoc as Nina Karanova
Berry Kroeger as John Grubb, aka ‘Paul’
Edna Best as Mrs. Albert Foster, neighbor
Stefan Schnabel as Col. Ilya Ranov, embassy attache
Eduard Franz as Maj. Semyon Kulin
Nicholas Joy as Dr. Harold Preston Norman, aka ‘Alec’
Frederic Tozere as Col. Aleksandr Trigorin

Watch “The Iron Curtain” (1948)

Plot

Igor Gouzenko (Dana Andrews), an expert at deciphering codes, comes to the Soviet embassy in Ottawa in 1943, along with a Soviet military colonel, Trigorin (Frederic Tozere), and a major, Kulin (Eduard Franz), to set up a base of operations.

Warned of the sensitive and top-secret nature of his work, Igor is put to a test by his superiors, who have the seductive Nina Karanova (June Havoc) try her wiles on him. Igor proves loyal to not only the cause but to his wife, Anna (Gene Tierney), who arrives in Ottawa shortly thereafter with the news that she is pregnant.

Trigorin and his security chief, Ranov (Stefan Schnabel), meet with John Grubb (Berry Kroeger), the founder of Canada’s branch of the Communist Party. One of their primary targets is uranium being used for atomic energy by Dr. Harold Norman (Nicholas Joy), whom they try to recruit.

In the years that pass, the atomic bomb ends the war. Anna, who has borne a son, now has serious doubts about the family’s future. Igor begins to share these doubts, particularly after one of his colleagues, Kulin has a breakdown and is placed under arrest. Once Igor is told that he is going to be reassigned back to Moscow, he decides to take action. He takes secret documents from the Embassy and tells Anna to hide them, in case anything happens to him. Trigorin and Ranov threaten his life, and the lives of his and Anna’s families in the Soviet Union, but Igor refuses to return the papers.

Grubb and several others are called back to the Soviet Union to answer for their failures. Canada’s government places the Gouzenkos in protective custody and grants them residence. The film ends with the proviso that the family lives in hiding protected by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. “Yet they have not lost faith in the future. They know that ultimate security for themselves and their children lies in the survival of the democratic way of life”.