Max Anders (Kurt Kreuger) and Gio Manfredi (Friedrich Joloff) are two high level scientists that work on secret atomic projects for the British government at Harwell. One morning both men fail to report for work. The police are notified. The police talk to Mrs. Manfredi (Jackie Collins). She tells them that her husband packed a back the night before and said he had to go north for a couple days. She didn’t know why. Scotland Yard is called in. Inspector Neill (John Neill) is assigned to the case. Scotland Yard in turn notifies Interpol and British Intelligence of the disappearances.
The U.S. High Commissioner’s office learns that another scientist, Dr. Ambrose, from Germany working at Oak Ridge was supposed to join the other two men in their defection to the East. He has second thoughts and goes to the High Commissioner’s office instead. He told them that they were promised their own laboratories, unlimited funds and that the results of his research would only be used for world peace. He also tells the High Commissioner’s office that the other two men are in Munich.
Agent Dick Richard (Paul Campbell) suggests that instead of just arresting the scientists that they try to convince them to return on their own. Richard wants to pose as Ambrose and try to persuade the men that what they were promised isn’t going to happen and that they will soon be prisoners of a communist country. The only fly in the ointment is another colleague is also headed for the rendezvous, the daughter of the man who supposedly arranged for the defection, Dr. Renner’s daughter Ruth and she knows the real Ambrose.
“The Missing Scientists” was released in 1955 and was directed by Steve Sekely. It is a British cold war thriller. The film was made in West Germany and is a poverty row movie. At a little over forty minutes long it barely qualifies as a movie. The film is partly in the style of a procedural with lots of montages and some padding.
The main draw for the film is Jackie Collins. It was her first credited film, even though her part was quite small. She was also quite young at the time so it would have been easy to not recognize her if her character wasn’t named. The other highlight is Irene Papas, a Greek actress, who did quite a few films and television shows in her career.
There are a few plot holes that did concern me. Manfredi’s wife was supposedly meeting, who I assume was her husband, but she is never heard from again. I’m also not sure why Ruth Renner is joining the scientists.
Other than that I didn’t think the film was all that bad, short and to the point it started out looking more like a newsreel than a movie. Once you get to the actual story it moved fast and it actually held my interest enough to want to see the end. There wasn’t much in the way of action but there was actually some tension and suspense toward the end. It wasn’t a great movie but then it didn’t have time to be. The acting was decent for the most part and the story, although basic, was told nicely. There isn’t much out there about the film but it did have some not so nice reviews. I don’t think it deserved to be totally trashed.