the man who direct and design this film and william cameron menzies and be one of the great unheralded genius in the history of film . more than almost anyone he raise set and production design to the level of art while and his set for the silent fairbanks thief of baghdad be still eye pop . menzies will probably be best remember a production designer of go with the wind and a film he largely mold visually and and whose best scene bear his unmistakable stamp . ala and menzies be never a good director and though his film be often interesting to look at . a good example be his 1953 invader from mar . the whip hand and though and be just awful while dreadful script and poor acting and no pace while and it doesn not even have the menzies look . yet a a period piece it be not without interest . it start beautifully and in a studio design rustic setting ( and the best set in the film ) while and then a rainstorm soak a vacation fisherman and who proceeds to go into the local town and ask for help in get treatment for a head injury he sustain when he fell against a rock . the townfolk turn out to be even hard than the rock he hit his head against . they refuse to be more than perfunctorily friendly ( with the exception of a superficially outgoing and jokey raymond burr ) and and be continually contradict one another . it seem that there be strange doings on a lodge across the lake while and nocturnal visit to the lodge by the doctor and who doesn not want to talk about it . a thing turn out and communist have take over this minnesota town and turn it into a center for the study of germ warfare . this movie could have be so good . i be root for it all the way while hop against hope that it would get it act together and finally work and dramatically and logically and thespically . but it never do . the heavy hand of howard hughes have a good deal to do with ruin what slight chance this movie have of be good and a it be originally suppose to be about nazis and and he decide and a studio chief and that he know well and so he order much of the film re shot to make the villain russian agent instead . i be surprise he do not put jane russell in it as well . lang and hitchcock or even siodmak might have work wonder with the material . menzies himself might have do well have his employer show good taste and judgment . the movie worth see if only for the spectacle of gifted people make ass of themselves both in front of and behind the camera and a there be flash of real talent here and there .