‘The Iron Curtain’ is a film made by 20 Century Fox in 1948 and is based on the true story of a code clerk at the Soviet Embassy in Canada’s capital city Ottowa, who defected to the West. The code clerk on his first mission outside of the Soviet Union, Igor Gouzenko played by Dana Andrews, is on arrival in Canada in 1943 a fully paid up and committed Communist functionary eager to carry out his job and to defend Communism.

However Gouzenko starts to learn more about life in Canada specifically and in the free West generally. He sees through the propaganda that he has been fed and defects to the West in 1945 and revealed to the Canadian government that the country was the subject of Soviet espionage activities. The film shows Gouzenko’s political awakening and his increasing awareness that he has been fighting for the wrong side.

This is an unashamedly anti-Communist film. It doesn’t hide its political view or its negative opinion of Communism and history has proven that Soviet Communism was indeed a dire threat to the free West for almost all the time that this political entity called the Soviet Union existed.

I was delighted to discover this long neglected gem of a film and hope you enjoy it too.