Plot summary
German Embassy officials in Washington are described in opening footage as busy recruiting spies. A German agent dies in a traffic accident, and a message found among his belongings says that Mr. Christopher will concentrate on Process 97, which Agent George A. Briggs recognizes as the atomic bomb project. German recruiters offer university student Bill Dietrich a well-paying job. He fakes interest and tells the FBI, and Briggs signs him up to work undercover on the other side. After six months of espionage training in Hamburg, the Germans return Dietrich to the United States. His assignment is a radio station on Long Island and the paymaster's role for a New York spy ring that meets at an East 92nd Street address. Only Mr. Christopher may alter his orders.
Cast
- Lydia St. Clairas Johanna Schmidt
- Bruno Wickas Adolf Lange
- Harro Melleras Conrad Arnulf
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The House on 92nd Street (1945)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was inspired by the real case of double agent William G. Sebold, whose work brought down the Duquesne Spy Ring in 1941, the largest espionage conviction in United States history. On January 2, 1942, 33 Nazi spies, including ring leader Fritz Joubert Duquesne, were sentenced to more than 300 years in prison.
- The House on 92nd Street was made with the full cooperation of the FBI, and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, appears in the introductory montage. The FBI agents shown in Washington, D.C. were played not by actors but by actual agents.
- The real house used in the filming of the movie stood at 53 E 93rd Street, not at the 92nd Street address of the title. It is no longer standing, and the site is now a pathway leading to premises behind where the original house was.
- The House on 92nd Street's semidocumentary style was an influence on other films that followed it, including The Naked City and Boomerang.
