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House on 92nd Street
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786303457864
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
ISBN: 630345786X
Label: 20th Century Fox
Languages: English (Original Language), AnalogGerman (Original Language), Analog
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: June 07, 1995
Running Time: 89 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: September 10, 1945
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Editorial Review:
The House on 92nd Street has solid claims to a place in film history, and not just as an engrossing true-life counter-espionage movie. Its working title was "Now It Can Be Told," and its story--about the F.B.I. smashing a Nazi spy ring in New York--involved the stealing of atomic secrets. That surely upped the topical ante for 1945 audiences (who, we may assume, had a lot less ambivalent feelings about the F.B.I. than latterday viewers).
Of more lasting significance, the movie pioneered a salutary postwar trend in American filmmaking: forsaking the Hollywood soundstages and back lot to tap the freshness and palpable authenticity of real-world locations. Shot mostly in New York City, House was a collaboration between 20th Century-Fox and Louis de Rochement, the documentary producer renowned for his "March of Time" newsreels. The working formula of House and its successors was to fully incorporate documentary techniques into the storytelling, and to "film where it actually happened." That included using some nonprofessional performers, sometimes people who had been involved in the case. Fox went on to embrace this aesthetic in not only the de Rochement-produced 13 Rue Madeleine and Boomerang! but also the gangster movie Kiss of Death, the journalistic detective story Call Northside 777, and another F.B.I. case history, Street With No Name. Even the storybook fantasy of the studio's 1947 Miracle on 34th Street was charmingly validated by setting Kris Kringle down amid real New Yorkers and real Gotham grittiness.
Noiristes should stand advised that House on 92nd Street, a key influence on film noir, is not quite a true noir itself (whereas Anthony Mann's T-Men is noir to the max). Even as a German-American double agent, hero William Eythe is unburdened by neurosis or doubt, and the stylistic keynote is documentary gray, not black--though a murder in a railroad yard and the final showdown are memorably stark and dark. --Richard T. Jameson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - spy movie
This was an enjoyable recounting of an actual spying event. I enjoyed the mixture of documentary footage. The ending was interesting. It was amusing to see how old time equipment was used in protecting the US.
Rating:  - The House on 92nd Street
Narrated in semi-documentary style and produced by "March of Time" newsreel creator Louis de Rochemont, Hathaway's intriguing WWII espionage thriller helped set in motion the semi-documentary vogue, featuring gritty on-location shooting and stories based on actual cases. Combining extant footage of German spies, a cast of unfamiliar stage actors and real-life FBI agents, and Reed Hadley's stern voiceover, "House" certainly has a true-to-life feel. But it's the tightly paced action and atmospheric, ... Read More
Rating: - Saving Atomic Secrets
This story is adapted from cases in the FBI files. The scenes are from actual places in most cases. The FBI started building up its personnel in 1939. They checked all mail to suspected German agents, and filmed everyone who visited their Embassy in Washington. They learned they were recruiting Americans as agents. One of them, William Dietrich, started working for the FBI. A German agent had an accident (fell or pushed?) And his belongings were given to the FBI. Cryptanalysts deciphered a message ... Read More
Rating: - An Excellent Transfer
This is a very clean transfer of the movie. It is well worthwhile to upgrade from the VHS version or to view for the first time. The movie, itself, is a good example of its genre--a period WWII spy thriller that weaves in historical fact. See, for instance, the book "The Game Of The Foxes" by Ladislas Farago.
Rating:  - A reverential look at the FBI versus Nazi spies, with a sly performance by Leo G. Carroll
"This story is adapted from the cases in the espionage files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Produced with the F.B.I.'s complete cooperation, it could not be made public until the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan." So reads the introduction. Despite 20th Century Fox marketing this DVD as a noir, it's just a pompous semi-documentary...a paean to the FBI. We're sitting in the church of J. Edgar Hoover and Hollywood has written the sermon and is leading the choir. For the first 20 minutes ... Read More
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