Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Released shortly after the end of World War II, The House on 92nd Street was made by Twentieth Century Fox with the full cooperation of the FBI. J. Edgar Hoover appears during the introduction, and many agents appear as extras. (But not all bit players are FBI. Look fast for E.G. Marshall as a spy trainee, and Vincent Gardenia as a morgue attendant.)

The unusual (if one-sided) inside view of the FBI presents a highly efficient and heavily staffed organization. The claim is made that any matching fingerprint can be identified within five minutes from their database of one hundred million records. Lipstick traces on a cigarette quickly leads to its source beauty salon.

The number of FBI employees ballooned during World War II, as agents were needed to prevent sabotage and monitor suspicious foreign born citizens. We know now that thousands of innocents were falsely imprisoned during this time. On the other hand, the military threat of Germany and Japan created a national emergency that partially justified the wholesale arrests.

New York City is depicted as teeming with ruthless, humorless and mercenary Nazi spies. Male lead William Eythe sleepwalks through his role as Bill Dietrich, a promising college graduate recruited by the Germans. Dietrich then turns double agent for the FBI. Dietrich is given volumes of classified military documents, which are made harmless and misleading by diligent FBI employees. Much is at stake, as both nations are closing in on the greatest of all equalizers, the atomic bomb.

The most memorable characters are the conspiring, sinister spies. Signe Hasso and Lydia St. Clair are tougher and more chilling than their male, middle-aged confederates: ingratiating secret peddler Leo G. Carroll and short tempered Bruno Wick. Gene Lockhart, best remembered as the Judge in Miracle on 34th Street, shows up as a meek traitor.

The House on 92nd Street was highly influential during its era. The film spawned a genre portraying crime investigations in a semi-documentary style, such as 13 Rue Madeliene (1946) and The Naked City (1948). It also won an Academy Award, for Best Original Story.

The producer was Louis de Rochemont, best known for the "March of Time" newsreels. Although Henry Hathaway directed, the de Rochemont style of combining on-location cinematography, archive footage, and subtly dramatic narration is in evidence. Actual FBI surveillance film of suspected Nazi agents is included.

Lloyd Nolan would reprise his role as the eternally capable Inspector Briggs in the sequel The Street With No Name (1948). This time, Briggs and his fellow FBI agents would tackle organized crime, with similar great success. (77/100)

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Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12