Villainous Communist spies torment an aging scientist whose son they have spirited off to East Berlin to be returned in exchange for America's atomic secrets. Midnight meetings on Boston street corners (“walk east on Beacon until you come to...”), microfilm containing coveted information, and pretty women who turn out to be Red make up the wrong side of this spy thriller. On the Right is the FBI, whose pursuit of the spy ring up and down New England is the focus of J. Edgar Hoover's story, “The Crime of the Century,” on which the film is based. Made as a pseudo-documentary (a “documentary feature”), Walk East on Beacon was eagerly taken for the real thing. Look magazine's feature article described it as “an exciting, fast-moving film that documents the Communist spy threat--and FBI vigilance,” a film that “in lightning sharp strokes gives full-bodied portraits of America's Red spies....” The New York Times hailed it as a “tribute to an arm of the law worthy of praise"--made, incidentally, with the “technical assistance” of the FBI itself.