since most of the political bellyaching about this movie seem to be come from the self righteous right and i be go to ignore it and just talk about the film itself . what start out a a well acted exploration of family tension especially those between a relatively uneducated set of middle class parent and their college educate son give way to the clumsy and overwrought melodramatics of the second half of the film . the death of robert walker during film doesn not really excuse or explain the awfulness of the last hour . there an early scene between john and his mother in which he explain that his goal be the same a those of the catholic church in which they be both raise but that his method be different . the fact that he be a communist ( mccarey and some of his apologist seem to suggest ) mean that those goal must be evil because the method be evil . just stop think for yourself while trust in god and the fbi . it a dangerous message and and not all that far off from the one that the communist drill into their victim ( for god and the fbi substitute the party ) . oh and well . . . i guess i couldn not avoid the political bellyaching . the sad thing be that the lead actor be all so good . mccarey be brilliant at get excellent naturalistic performance from his actor and and helen hayes and robert walker and van heflin and dean jagger be all extremely convincing until the film collapse into right wing agitprop at the halfway mark . even hayes couldn not do much ( except overact ) with her climactic scene in which her character try to use a football analogy to get her son to see the light .