Big Jim McLain

One of John Wayne's most egregious vehicles, Big Jim McLain (1952) is hard to take seriously. A mediocre police procedural with a right-wing edge, it rivals Red Nightmare as one of Hollywood's most overwrought Red-baiting efforts.

The House Un-American Activities Committee dispatches Agents Jim McLain (John Wayne) and Mal Baxter (James Arness) to unravel a ring of Communist spies operating out of Hawaii. McLain discovers that psychiatrist Dr. Gelster (Gayne Whitman) heads the group, who have infiltrated labor unions, Navy bases and medical institutions, hoping to sabotage Hawaii in the event of war. When Gelster's thugs kill Mal, McLain makes things personal.

Made at the height of McCarthyism and the Korean War, Big Jim McLain bluntly embraces right-wing paranoia. The movie is racially tolerant, with respectful portrayals of Hawaiians good and bad, but finds other ways to promote bellicose conservatism. Many of the loathsome Commies are simpering eggheads, but the worst is a self-proclaimed "country club" type, a well-heeled thug who gets Wayne's goat by comparing him to a nigger. These "intellectual" Bolshies are none-too-bright, discussing their nefarious plans in excrutiating detail for the benefit of the authorities. Of course, the Red weasels escape prosecution by hiding behind the Fifth Amendment. Just like those Commies to abuse our Constitution!

It's hard to ignore its ideology, but Big Jim McLain isn't much even as a straight thriller. The film garners bad laughs through McLain's pompous narration: "Frankly, I'm scared of leprosy!" he proclaims as he follows a lead to a leper colony. Director Edward Ludwig shoots some beautiful Hawaiian locations, but the plot is by-the-numbers, there's not enough action for most Wayne fans, and the Duke's romance with a pretty secretary (Nancy Olson) is underdeveloped. The film primarily exists to promote its fossilized Cold War politics, not to entertain.

John Wayne is in two-fisted hero mode, kicking Commie butt, romancing the pretty Nancy Olson (Sunset Blvd.) and upholding the American Way in inimitable fashion. Duke protege James Arness (Them!) plays his ill-fated sidekick. Veda Ann Borg's fiesty blonde informant steals her scenes, but the villains are a boring collection of stereotypes.

Big Jim McLain is a ridiculous curio, and one of John Wayne's worst pre-1970s films. Unless you still think Red-baiting is a swell idea, you're not likely to enjoy it.