WALK A CROOKED MILE (1948)
The Movie
Walk A Crooked Mile, directed by Gordon Douglas, premiered in San Francisco on September 16, 1948. In documentary style narrated by the stern bass voice of Reed Hadley, it twists and turns its way through a joint investigation of communist spy activity by the FBI and Scotland Yard. Filmed at a time when the House Un-American Activities Committee was investigating the government and Hollywood for communist infiltrators, the movie tapped into the national ‘red scare’ paranoia later to reach its apotheosis during the McCarthyism era of communist and homosexual (then a crime) exposés.
The Story
When a young FBI agent investigating leaks of atomic information from a nuclear research laboratory in Southern California is murdered his boss Daniel F. O’Hara (Dennis O’Keefe) suspects a communist emigré and tails him to San Francisco in the hope that he will be led to bigger fish. But the suspect is killed under their noses and attention shifts to an artist who he had contacted. A Scotland Yard agent, Scotty Grayson (Louis Haywood) arrives with an intercepted painting imported into Britain carrying a hidden cryptic formula. Details on the painting lead them to the artist; his surveillance in turn sends them back to the research lab to interview a group of scientists, one of whom they expose as the traitor, but not before a series of harrowing encounters with the spy ring heavies (including Raymond Burr, in an early role).
The Locations
Red Scare 100 block , N. Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California —- Federal Building, 312 N.Spring Street, Los Angeles —- Carlin Car Company, 1220 - 1234 S. Figeroa, Los Angeles
Bus Ride Yerba Buena Island —- Oakland-SanFrancisco Bay Bridge
Expendable 153 Octavia Street, Hayes Valley
The Painting Federal Building, U.N. Plaza, Civic Center
Igor’s Studio Mason Street near Sutter, Union Square —- 6th Street near Minna, SoMa —- view from 1090 Chestnut Street, Russian Hill —- 1625 and 1693 Market Street, Mid Market
Stakeout 1087 Clay Street, Nob Hill —- 1055 Mason Street, Nob Hill
Lunch Break Hang Far Low, 725 Grant Avenue, Chinatown
A Second Painting 1087 Clay Street, Nob Hill —- View from the rooftop of 1740 Market Street, Mid Market
Pier 36 1101 Clay Street, Nob Hill —- Mark Hopkins Hotel, Nob Hill —- View east along California Street from Mason —- The Embarcadero at Pier 36, South Beach
Airport San Francisco Airport, San Mateo County
Clandestine Meeting Pacific Finance Loans, 14560 Friar Street, Van Nuys, Southern California
Find The Mole! (Still searching for this location …)
Dirty Laundry Half-Hour Laundromat, 14519 Sylvan Street, Van Nuys, Southern California
Rough Stuff Half-Hour Laundromat, 14519 Sylvan Street, Van Nuys, Southern California —- 860 N. Highland Avenue, Hollywood
They Get Their Man! Los Angeles City Hall