Whip Hand, The (1951)

This borderline science fiction tale of a communist cell infiltrating a small American town and planning to unleash a devastating weapon of germ warfare was one of the first in a string of “Reds under the bed” thrillers made in the US during the early 1950s.

Holidaying journalist Matt Corbin (Elliot Reid) stumbles on the plot while on a fishing trip to the small mountain town of Winnoga in the Wisconsin woods.

When director William Cameron Menzies started work on the film it was titled The Man He Found and was set in the immediate aftermath of World War II, detailing attempts by Nazis to shelter Adolf Hitler after he flees Germany.

RKO boss Howard Hughes saw an early rough cut and decided that Nazis were old hat and had Menzies re-shoot key scenes to transform the film into the anti-Communist paranoia piece it became (although the villain of the film was still a Nazi doctor – he worked at a lodge in the woods and experimented with germ warfare on people in the surrounding area who somehow fell under his control).

Nobody seemed terribly pleased with Hughes’ decision, not least the public – the film cost $376,000 to make but took just $225,000.

Leading man Elliott Reid was particularly upset by the changes, commenting later; “I so deplore what happened to that movie, when Howard Hughes ruined it (and) destroyed the movie with a disgusting new ending”.

Matt Corbin
Elliott Reid
Janet Keller
Carla Balenda
Dr Edward Keller
Edgar Barrier
Steve Loomis
Raymond Burr
Dr Wilhelm Bucholtz
Otto Waldis
Chick
Michael Steele
Molly Loomis
Lurene Tuttle
Nate Garr
Peter Brocco
Peterson
Lewis Martin
Luther Adams
Frank Darien
Mabel Turner
Olive Carey
Jed
George Chandler
Carstairs
Douglas Evans
Ed
Billy Nelson
Sheriff
Jamesson Shade

Director
William Cameron Menzies