Diplomatic Courier

Neat, taut espionage thriller, with Power out to avenge a friend's death and finding himself on the trail of a secret document which will alert America to Soviet plans for the invasion of Yugoslavia. Cold War simplistics rule, as always in the early '50s. But the plot, adapted from a Peter Cheyney novel (Sinister Errand) runs mainly to fast-moving action, and with Trieste as the principal location, it's beautifully shot by Lucien Ballard in a globe-trotting equivalent to the semi-documentary style Hathaway evolved in The House on 92nd Street, 13 Rue Madeleine and Call Northside 777.