Watching the Soviet Union collapse on the evening news, you can't help feeling a little nostalgic for the old Evil Empire. For all their sociopolitical problems, the Reds sure made great movie villains. Here's the proof on video:
The Red Menace (1949)
A disgruntled World War II vet
falls into the insidious clutches of Communist Party recruiters. A
sort of red-scare equivalent of Reefer Madness, The Red Menace is a
striking example of how far panicky studios would go to distance
themselves from anything remotely tainted by left-wing politics. An
intriguing movie if you enjoy a campy hoot or are partial to bizarre
specimens of social history, or if you're really into paranoia. B
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Film noir is brilliantly
adapted to the Cold War by cult writer-director Sam Fuller. An amoral
pickpocket (played to weasel-like perfection by Richard Widmark)
accidentally lifts stolen military secrets from a Soviet courier. He
tries to parlay this accident into a profit but discovers that not
even he is willing to do business with traitors. A
The Ipcress File (1965)
Real-life East-West
intrigue provided the inspiration for several secret-agent movies,
and The Ipcress File, based on Len Deighton's novel, is one of the
best. It deals with classic Cold War themes — political kidnapping, the
rivalry for technical secrets, brainwashing — that are woven together
with clever plotting, suspense, and humor. In his first starring
role, Michael Caine is alternately erudite and thuggish as Harry
Palmer, one of the most offbeat and entertaining celluloid Cold
Warriors. A
Red Dawn (1984)
This loopy exercise in popcorn paranoia
revolves around a teenage guerrilla band that resists a Soviet-Cuban
conquest of the U.S. Director John Milius (Flight of the Intruder)
shapes Red Dawn's anti-Communist zeal into an intense, apocalyptic
fantasy, the ultimate manifestation of Cold War fears. B+
Rocky IV (1985)
At the height of the Reagan era, Rocky
Balboa takes his hammering dukes to Dolph Lundgren, a soulless
People's Superman. The climactic slugfest is the definitive
comic-book confrontation between East and West, and Stallone the
writer-director somehow manages to wring rousing melodrama out of his
predictable formula. B+
The Advenures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Vol. 4 (1991)
In the '50s and '60s, no East Bloc villains were more incorrigible or
sublimely goofy than Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, comic
antidotes to Cold War tensions. All volumes in this series are worth
seeing, but in this tape Boris and Natasha outdo themselves: They
concoct a scheme to ruin the Free World economy by counterfeiting
that most indispensable of American monetary standards — the premium
box top. This hilarious cassette proves again that Rocky and
Bullwinkle was the best kiddie show ever made for adults. A
