''The 49th Man'' is a 1953 American

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American '' ...

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

directed by Fred F. Sears and starring

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...

and

Richard Denning Richard Denning (March 27, 1914 – October 11, 1998) was an American actor who starred in science fiction films of the 1950s, including '' Unknown Island'' (1948), '' Creature from the Black Lagoon'' ( 1954), '' Target Earth'' (1954), '' Day ...

. It was released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

. The

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

thriller was based on a story by

Ivan Tors Ivan Tors (born Iván Törzs; June 12, 1916 – June 4, 1983) was a Hungarian playwright, film director, screenwriter, and film and television producer with an emphasis on non-violent but exciting science fiction, underwater sequences, and stori ...

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 A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

s components into the United States as part of a secret

war game A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

and the unexpected 49th man, using the war game as cover, smuggling in a real atomic bomb as part of a plot to destroy an American city.

Plot

After a fatal car crash in

Lordsburg, New Mexico Lordsburg is a city in and the county seat of Hidalgo County, New Mexico, United States. Hidalgo County includes the southern "bootheel" of New Mexico, along the Arizona border. The population was 2,797 at the 2010 census, down from 3,379 in 20 ...

, investigators find a mysterious machine component that they turn over to the nearby

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

for identification. Scientists there declare that it is one component of an advanced portable

), chief of the Security Investigation Division (SID), to send agent John Williams (

) 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 Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern France ...

. After

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

is found welded to the hull of a

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

submarine in

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...

, 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 Suzanne Dalbert (12 May 1927 – 31 December 1970) was a French actress who appeared in a number of American films and television series during the 1940s and 50s. Biography Dalbert was born in Paris and moved to the United States, following Worl ...

) and her husband Leo Wayne (

Peter Marshall Peter Marshall may refer to: Entertainment * Peter Marshall (entertainer) (born 1926), American game show host of ''The Hollywood Squares'', 1966–1981 * Peter Marshall (author, born 1939) (1939–1972), British novelist whose works include ''T ...

) are working with clarinet player Buzz Olin (

Richard Avonde Richard Avonde (1914–1981) was a Canadian film actor who settled in the United States. He appeared in more than 50 films and television series. In 1956, Avonde completed his 200th role in a television series when he appeared in an episode of '' ...

) and an unknown member of the submarine's crew to smuggle the parts in special metal cases built by Pierre Neff (

George Dee George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Preside ...

). After a fight near the dock, Williams believes that Lt. Magrew (

Mike Connors Krekor Ohanian (August 15, 1925 – January 26, 2017), known professionally as Mike Connors, was an American actor best known for playing private detective Joe Mannix in the CBS television series ''Mannix'' from 1967 to 1975, a role which earne ...

) and Commander Jackson (

Robert Foulk Robert C. Foulk (May 5, 1908 – February 25, 1989) was an American television and film character actor who portrayed Sheriff H. Miller in the CBS series ''Lassie'' from 1958 to 1962. Early years Foulk attended the University of Pennsylvan ...

) 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

, 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 San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

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 is a hydrographic basin in the Nevada National Security Site south of Yucca Flat and north of Mercury, Nevada. The flat was used as an American nuclear test site and has a dry lake bed (Frenchman Lake) that was used as a 1950s ...

at the

Nevada Test Site The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2 or NNSS), known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the ...

. 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

as SID agent John Williams *

as SID chief Paul Reagan *

as Margo Wayne *

as Commander Jackson *

as Ensign Magrew (credited as "Touch Conners") *

as Buzz Olin * William Bryant as FBI Agent in Montage (as William R. Klein) *

Cicely Browne ''Myrrhis odorata'', with common names cicely (), sweet cicely, myrrh, garden myrrh, and sweet chervil, is a herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the celery family Apiaceae. It is the only species in the genus ''Myrrhis''. Etymology The gen ...

as Blonde Woman (as Cicely Brown) *

Tommy Farrell Tommy Farrell (born Thomas Farrell Richards; October 7, 1921 – May 9, 2004) was an American actor and comedian who appeared in over 100 films and TV series between 1944 and 1983. He was best known for his sidekick roles in the Hollywood Gold ...

as Agent Reynolds *

Joseph Mell Joseph Mell (June 23, 1915 – August 31, 1977) was an American film and television actor. He was known for starring as Burt Stone in the 1971 film ''The Ski Bum''. Mell died in August 1977 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 62. Partia ...

as Box of Taffy Man at Penn Station * Robert Hunter as Andy - alias Andre *

as Leo Wayne

Production

*director of photography

Lester White Lester White (July 25, 1907 - December 4, 1958) was an American cinematographer. Selected filmography *''The Prizefighter and the Lady'' (1933) *'' Laughing Boy'' (1934) *'' A Wicked Woman'' (1934) *''Society Doctor'' (1934) *''Times Square Lady ...

, A.S.C. *art director

Paul Palmentola Paul Palmentola (1888–1966) was an Italian-born American art director.Stephens p.233 He designed the film sets for more than two hundred productions during his career, much of his work during the 1930s and 1940s at low-budget studios such as Ma ...

*film editor

William A. Lyon William Austin Lyon (January 21, 1903 – March 18, 1974) was an American film editor, from 1935 to 1971. He was born in Texas, and died in Los Angeles, California. Employed by Columbia Pictures for most of his career, he was nominated for the Ac ...

, A.C.E. *set decorator Louis Diage *assistant director Milton Feldman *sound engineer George Cooper *musical director

Mischa Bakaleinikoff Mikhail Romanovich "Mischa" Bakaleinikov (also spelled Bakaleynikov and Bakaleinikoff; russian: Михаил Романович Бакалейников; November 10, 1890 – August 10, 1960) was a noted musical director, film composer and ...

*certificate number 16329 *Western Electric recording *produced by

Sam Katzman Sam Katzman (July 7, 1901 – August 4, 1973) was an American film producer and director. Katzman produced low-budget genre films, including serials, which had disproportionately high returns for the studios and his financial backers. E ...

*associate producer

Charles H. Schneer Charles Hirsch Schneer (May 5, 1920 – January 21, 2009) was an American film producer, best known for working with Ray Harryhausen, the specialist known for his work in stop motion model animation. Life and career Born in Norfolk, Virginia, he ...

References

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External links

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Review of film
at Variety {{DEFAULTSORT:49th Man, The 1953 films 1950s action thriller films American black-and-white films American spy films American crime thriller films American action thriller films Cold War spy films Columbia Pictures films Films about nuclear war and weapons Films directed by Fred F. Sears Films produced by Sam Katzman Films set in Nevada Films set in Washington, D.C. Films set in New Mexico Films set in Connecticut Films set in Marseille Films set in San Francisco 1950s English-language films 1950s American films