JohnHowardReid John Ireland was an actor with a moderate amount of charisma, who always knew his lines and gave his directors no trouble at all. Although he was a natural for TV and played many roles, including John Hunter in 39 episodes of "The Cheaters", Jeff Colby in 8 episodes of "Rawhide", and Shack Shackelford in 13 episodes of "Cassie & Co.", he never became a household word. In movies, his best role was as Jack Burden in All the King's Men (1949) for which he should have won that year's award for Best Supporting Actor, but unaccountably lost out to Dean Jagger in Twelve O'Clock High. Earlier in 1949, Ireland played the title role of Bob Ford in I Shot Jesse James. He continued the James association by playing the lead in The Return of Jesse James (1950), a minor film about a drifter who adopted the James name. In 1951, he starred in The Basketball Fix and The Bushwackers. In 1952 he was the lead in Hurricane Smith. So it's no surprise to find him as the star of our 1948 "B" movie, Open Secret, even though he does little with the role and is often upstaged by the support cast, particularly Anne O'Neal, here in the first of her fifteen movie appearances for 1948. In fact, Miss O'Neal's inquisitive landlady does tend to throw the whole movie off balance and she certainly creams our nominal heroine, Jane Randolph. We would also have liked to have seen more of some of the other support players, particularly Roman Bohnen and Sheldon Leonard. However, the movie does come to an effective action climax, well staged by director John Reinhardt—although the lesson or the moral does seem to be a bit exaggerated and over the top. Admittedly, Gentleman's Agreement (1947) erred in the opposite direction and was too namby-pamby in its approach to anti-Jewish prejudice, but I still thought the police response in an Open Secret situation would have been far more active, particularly as the movie seems to go out of its way to praise the police effort and make excuses for their lack of involvement. Available on a very good Alpha DVD.

SGT Lee Bartoletti Tight story on anti-Semitic/anti-"Foreigner" group operating in what appears to be part of NYC. Ireland discovers that his murdered Army buddy was somehow involved with said group, and tries to get to the bottom of it. In the process, he discovers some incriminating photos of local resident bigots, and nearly gets greased himself (of course). Novel to see Leonard playing a good guy (a police detective) who, being of Italian ancestry, has a personal interest in ridding the nativist bigots who terrorize his town (in the last scene, he actually walks down the street with a grin on his face). Two best pieces of dialog:Leonard to Jewish camera store owner Strauss (after beating up town bigots)- "Hey, Harry, what'd they to to you? Strauss- "Did you see the other guy? Take it easy on Ralph; I think the kid learned by now." Ireland- "Hey, you wanna see a doctor?" Strauss- "Doctor? I never felt better in my life."Leonard on phone, talking to a detective about catching gang's leader, Phillips- "This is Frontelli speaking. Send the wagon to 531 Parker, back alley...Phillips. (Chuckles slightly under his breath). Yeah, he was playing Hitler, but in the wrong precinct." 7 out of 10 *s.

MartinHafer 1947 saw the debut of the film "Gentleman's Agreement" in which Gregory Peck pretended to be Jewish in order to feel what it's like to be a Jew in America. Naturally, he experiences some discrimination but it's mostly very proper ('nice' anti-Semitism) and the leading man quite handsome. It was NOT particularly gritty and I always thought the film was amazingly tame...and a bit overdone. Here, a year later, a low-budget studio had decided to do a film like "Gentleman's Agreement"--but with more normal looking folks (no handsome Peck or John Garfield here) and in a more working-class neighborhood. And, in addition, the level of hate was ratcheted up...a lot. In fact, in this sick little town, a local hidden hate group has gone so far as kill Jews! John Ireland infiltrates this group of sickies and the film lacks the pretty polish but also seems a bit more gutsy and violent. Oddly, despite the publicity for the earlier film and critical acclaim, I prefer "Open Secret" as it is much more exciting and more like a variation on film noir. A great film? No...but it certainly is interesting and the problems don't seem so mundane as those in the Gregory Peck film. As a result, it shows a seedier and uglier side to ethnic hatred.

Dewey1960 The late 1940s saw a brief spate of message movies dealing with anti-semitism, most notably the fantastic film noir thriller CROSSFIRE and the more famous but somewhat tepid GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT (both 1947). OPEN SECRET, from 1948, shares more in common with CROSSFIRE given its noir trappings and thriller elements. John Ireland plays ex-GI Paul Lester who, along with his new wife Nancy (the very alluring Jane Randolph) arrive in town with the hopes of visiting Paul's old army buddy, Ed Stevens. When Ed turns up missing, Paul and Nancy are tossed into the middle of a dark mystery involving a neighborhood hate group whose targets are ethnic immigrant residents and business owners. Chief among them is Harry Strauss (George Tyne) a Jewish camera shop owner who figures prominently in the search for Ed who, it turns out, has been hunted down and killed by the hate-mongers because of incriminating photographs involving a previous killing that were in his possession. The direction (by John Reinhardt) of the film is considerably more lively than most ultra-low budget thrillers and the issues it brings up are actually on the level of those tackled in CROSSFIRE. Much of the dialog is quite intelligent and pungently written, dealing with delicate issues in a frank, straightforward way. Other notably interesting people in the cast are Roman Bohnen (the well-respected left-wing blacklisted actor) as an alcoholic wife-beater and member of the hate group, Sheldon Leonard (a veteran of tons of "B" noirs) as a sympathetic cop and, in a background bit part, King Donovan (from Don Siegel's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"). OPEN SECRET has recently been released in a budget-priced DVD and I strongly urge fans of this hybrid noir genre to check it out.