Spy Hunt [Panther’s Moon] *** (1950, Howard Duff, Marta Toren, Philip Friend, Robert Douglas, Philip Dorn, Walter Slezak) – Classic Movie Review 11,417

Director George Sherman’s 1950 Universal Pictures black and white espionage thriller Spy Hunt [Panther’s Moon] stars Howard Duff, Marta Toren [Märta Torén], Philip Friend, Robert Douglas, Philip Dorn and Walter Slezak.

A spy hides microfilm footage of an assassination in the collar of one of two circus panthers, who consequently escape into the countryside in Switzerland, and soon everyone is hunting for them.

Duff and Toren play Steve Quain and Catherine Uilven, the good guys trying to battle the gaggle of rival foreign spies, including Chris Denson (Friend), Paul Kopel (Dorn) and Paradou (Douglas), charging around after their feline quarry.

A more than tolerable and entertaining spy thriller is seen though by the stalwart acting, even if the well set-up yarn has few surprises to offer in its development and Sherman’s direction is unusually sluggish and muddled. The decent, engaging plot is based in the screenplay by George Zuckerman and Leonard Lee, upon Victor Canning’s novel Panther’s Moon, the film’s UK title.

Visually, it looks very sharp and exciting, thanks to Irving Glassberg’s cinematography.

Swedish star Märta Torén appeared in 11 American films, including Casbah (1948), Sword in the Desert (1949), One Way Street (1950), Spy Hunt [Panther’s Moon] (1950), Sirocco (1951), The Man Who Watched Trains Go By (1952) and Assignment – Paris (1952), but died from a cerebral haemorrhage, aged only 31, on 19 February 1957.

Also in the cast are Walter Slezak as Doctor Stahl, Kurt Kreuger as Captain Heimer, Ivan Triesault, Aram Katcher as Georg, Otto Waldis as Gormand, Jim Barney, Carl Milletaire, Antonio Filauri, Peter Ortiz, Peter Applequist, Carlo Tricoli, Betty Greco, Carmela Restivo, Jack Chefe, and Rudy Silva.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,417

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