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Big Jim McLain

Director: Edward Ludwig (Dir) Release Date: 30 Aug 1952 Premiere Information: Kohio, HI world premiere: 28 Aug 1952 Production Date: 30 Apr--16 Jun 1952 Duration (in mins): 90			Print this page Display Movie Summary

Cast:	John Wayne	(Big Jim McLain)
	Nancy Olson	(Nancy Vallon)
	James Arness	(Mal Baxter)
	Alan Napier	(Sturak)
	Veda Ann Borg	(Madge)
	Hans Conried	(Robert Henried)
	Hal Baylor	(Poke)
	Gayne Whitman	(Dr. Gelster)
	Gordon Jones	(Olaf)
	Robert Keys	(Edwin White)
	John Hubbard	(Lt. Comm. Clint Grey)
	Madame Soo Yong	(Mrs. Nomaka)
	Honolulu Chief of Police Dan Liu	(Dan Liu)
	Red McQueen	(Phil Briggs)
	Paul Hurst	(Mr. Lexiter)
	Sara Padden	(Mrs. Lexiter)
	Zinko "Lucky" Simunovich	(Muscle man)
	Bishop Kinai Ikuma	(Reverend Ito)
	Joel Trapido
	Sam "Steamboat" Mokuaki
	Charles "Panama" Baptiste
	Rennie Brooks
	Akiru Fukunaza
	Ralph Honda
	Al Kealoha Perry
	Singing Surfriders

Summary:

Although they are frustrated to see Communist enemy agents plead the Fifth Amendment and walk free, Jim McLain and Mal Baxter, special investigators for the House Un-American Activities Committee, undertake a new mission to investigate a Communist cell headquartered in Honolulu. At the airport, Phil Briggs, a Honolulu newspaper reporter, agrees to cooperate with Jim and Mal in return for a scoop. To begin their investigation, Jim and Mal present subpoenas to known Communist party members in Hawaii, but are unable to find former party treasurer Willie Nomaka. Posing as a creditor, Jim gets Nomaka's address from Nancy Vallon, the secretary of Nomaka's psychiatrist, Dr. Gelster. Then he asks Nancy for a date. Meanwhile, Sturak, an elite party member, orders Gelster, who is also in the party, to "get rid of Nomaka," as his nervous behavior and drinking habits jeopardize their security. On weekends, Jim courts the widowed Nancy and later proposes to her, and during work hours, Jim and Mal find their investigation supported by Police Chief Dan Liu and local businessmen who want to protect Hawaii from the Communist menace. A former party member tips Jim and Mal that Nomaka may soon crack, as he has been drinking heavily in public, which is against party rules. Hoping to get information from Nomaka, Jim and Mal go to the address supplied by Nancy, but instead meet Nomaka's brazen landlady Madge, who tells them that Nomaka had a nervous breakdown and was taken to a sanitarium by Gelster. As they talk, two thugs arrive to pick up Nomaka's trunk, and Jim notes their license plate numbers. Liu has the men picked up for questioning for an unrelated incident and the contents of Nomaka's trunk are photographed. Then the men are tailed to a ritzy club, which, unknown to the police, is Sturak's center of operation. When the film is developed, Mal realizes that the contents look like insurance policies, and later the Washington office confirms that they have found evidence of insurance fraud. Jim learns that Nomaka's ex-wife is a nurse on Molokai, and he goes there to meet her. Penitent for her years as a party member, she admits that she had not heard from Nomaka in years, then recently received two incoherent messages in which Nomaka accused himself of "fratricide," although he has no siblings, and mentioned returning to the religion of his childhood. Jim next visits the Shinto temple, where Reverend Ito reveals that Nomaka has been seen praying there. Meanwhile, Liu tips Mal that Gelster's phone bills included calls to Sanford Sanitarium. Mal proceeds there with a search warrant and finds Nomaka, who is in shock from the breakdown, heavily drugged and unable to talk. A local businessman introduces Jim and Mal to Edwin White, a union leader who appears to be routing out Communists in the workplace. However, Jim and Mal coincidentally receive a call from the Lexiters, a retired, first-generation Polish-American couple, who say that their son, a Communist, is working in Honolulu using the name Edwin White. Later, Madge calls, claiming she has something of interest for Jim. After dragging him to several bars, she finally hands over an opened letter from overseas addressed to Nomaka, which reveals his involvement in the sabotage of a U.S. Navy vessel, which resulted in the death of Nomaka's childhood friend and fellow Shinto. Meanwhile, Mal is murdered while following a lead, and the autopsy reveals that he died from an injection of truth serum that aggravated his heart condition. Later, Jim tries spreading rumors that the investigation is off, but Sturak recognizes the old police trick and calls a meeting of local party leaders, unaware that his club has been wired by the police. Unhappy that Gelster killed Mal, he orders the doctor to confess his party membership and implicate seven others, hoping that the authorities will believe the ring has been dissolved. Then three "essential" members will be free to continue with plans: Whelan, a labor relations counselor, and White, a labor union leader, are to create dissent among the workers and halt production, while Mortimer, a bacteriologist, is to create an epidemic on the island. After rounding up Briggs, Jim crashes the meeting and starts a brawl, and Liu and his men arrive shortly after to arrest the party leaders. Later, Gelster and two others are charged with Mal's murder, but the others are brought to a special House Un-American Activities Committee hearing held in Honolulu. Again, Jim sees the Communists plead the Fifth Amendment and go free. Later, with Nancy at his side to comfort him, Jim watches a parade of servicemen.

Production Company:	Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
	Wayne-Fellows Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company:	Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Director:	Edward Ludwig	(Dir)
	Andrew McLaglen	(Asst dir)
Producer:	Robert Fellows	(Prod)
Writer:	James Edward Grant	(Wrt)
	Richard English	(Wrt)
	Eric Taylor	(Wrt)
Photography:	Archie Stout	(Dir of photog)
Art Direction:	Al Ybarra	(Art dir)
Film Editor:	Jack Murray	(Film ed)
Set Decoration:	Charles Thompson	(Set dec)
Costumes:	Geneva Bourne	(Ward)
Music:	Emil Newman	(Mus)
	Arthur Lange	(Mus)
	Paul Dunlap	(Mus)
Sound:	Tom Carmen	(Sd)
Make Up:	Web Overlander	(Makeup artist)
	Fae Smith	(Hairstylist)
Production Misc:	Nate H. Edwards	(Prod mgr)
Country:	United States
Language:	English

Music:
Songs:
Source Text:

Copyright Claimant	Copyright Date	Copyright Number
Wayne-Fellows Productions, Inc.	18/9/1952 dd/mm/yyyy	LP1926, LP1884

PCA NO:	16057
Physical Properties:	Sd:	RCA Sound System
	b&w:


Genre:	Drama
Sub-Genre:	Cold War

Subjects (Major):	Communism
	Hawaii
	Investigations
	Patriotism
	United States. Congress--House Committee on Un-American Activities

Subjects (Minor):	Aliases
	Arrests
	Hula (Dance)
	Labor leaders
	Landladies
	Murder
	Nurses
	Police chiefs
	Polish Americans
	Proposals (Marital)
	Psychiatrists
	Recordings
	Reporters
	Romance
	Secretaries
	Shinto
	United States. Navy
	Widows

Note:	After the opening credits, a voice-over narrator recites quotes from the short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benét, immediately followed by a voice-over tribute to the House Committe on Un-American Activities for its pursuit of inquiries "undaunted by the vicious campaign of slander launched against them." A title card at the end of the film states that the incidents in the film were based on the files of the Committee, although names and places were changed, and acknowledges the cooperation of the Committee in the making of the film. The film was copyrighted by Wayne-Fellows Productions Inc. on 2 Sep 1952, LP1884, as Big Jim McLain . The 18 Sep 1952 copyright, LP1926, was titled Big Jim McLean . Production charts list the production company as The Fifth Corp., but all other sources list it as Wayne-Fellows Productions. The Fifth Corp. was also owned by Robert Fellows and John Wayne, and named for a recurring theme in the film, that proven Communists were freed after pleading the Fifth Amendment. According to a Mar 1952 Var news item, Big Jim McLain was to be the first in a series of films of Wayne-Fellows Productions for release by Warner Bros. The news item speculated that Warner Bros. had agreed to release Big Jim McLain after the studio and Wayne failed to agree on a project to fulfill Wayne's one-picture-a-year contract. Jun 1952 HR news items add Peter Brocca and Andy Iona and His Polynesians to the cast. Their appearance in the final film has not been confirmed. The film was shot entirely on location in Hawaii and includes scenes of Pearl Harbor, Molokai, Waikiki and Honolulu, according to reviews and production notes. According to Warner Bros. production notes, several of the people cast in the film were Honolulu citizens: Honolulu Chief of Police Dan Liu, news reporter Vernon "Red" McQueen, wrestling champion Zinko "Lucky" Simunovich, University of Hawaii professor Joel Trapido, Bishop Kinai Ikuma, Sam "Steamboat" Mokuaki, Charles "Panama" Baptiste, Rennie Brooks, Akira Fukunaza and Ralph Honda. According to an Aug 1952 HR news item, the film was rushed into release to beat two other John Wayne films, RKO's The Jet Pilot , which was not released until 1957, and Republic's The Quiet Man (see entries below).

Bibliographic Sources:	Date	Page
Box Office	30 Aug 1952.
Daily Variety	25 Aug 52	p. 3.
Film Daily	3 Sep 52	p. 6.
Hollywood Reporter	4 Apr 1952	p. 1.
Hollywood Reporter	2 May 52	p. 11.
Hollywood Reporter	6 Jun 1952	p. 15.
Hollywood Reporter	12 Jun 52	p. 7.
Hollywood Reporter	13 Jun 52	p. 3.
Hollywood Reporter	20 Jun 52	p. 11.
Hollywood Reporter	8 Aug 52	p. 1.
Hollywood Reporter	25 Aug 52	p. 3.
Hollywood Reporter	27 Aug 52	p. 6.
Motion Picture Herald Product Digest	30 Aug 52	p. 1509.
New York Times	18 Sep 52	p. 35.
Newsweek	5 Nov 1952.
Variety	12 Mar 1952.
Variety	27 Aug 52	p. 6.

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The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.



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