Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 1, February 2001 | Page 103

The Seduction of Communism:
O n e L o n e l y N i g h t and J e t P il o t
Anti-Communist propaganda of the Fifties crossed generic boundaries and
gave popular culture a new plot device. At a time when the United States felt its
entire way of life besieged by Communism and its potential spread, portraits of the
Red Menace moved out of the confines of army training films and into mainstream
popular culture. In this essay, I focus on two anti-Communist works, Mickey
Spillane’s detective novel One L onely N ight (1951), and Josef Von Sternberg’s
romantic spy thriller J e t Pilot (1957). Both works portray the threat of Communism
as a threat of seduction.
One Lonely N igh t focuses on Mike Hammer’s investigation of a woman’s
death that leads him to the Communist Party headquarters in New York. Hammer
passes for a MVD man and gains access to the organization. A wealthy socialite,
Ethel Brighton, who works for the Party, seduces him. Meanwhile, Pat, Mike’s
policeman friend, after learning of Mike’s infiltration of the Party, enlists him to
help with an investigation involving a prominent politician, Lee Deamer. Deamer’s
reputation is threatened by his insane twin brother, Oscar, who apparently dies
after being pushed under a train. Deamer then asks for Mike’s help in retrieving
stolen secret-weapons documents. Mike discovers the documents and is prepared
to turn them over to Deamer. After attempts are made on his life, Mike believes
that Ethel has betrayed him. He learns this is not the case. Prior to turning over the
documents, Mike’s secretary and fiancee, Velda, is kidnapped by Communist agents.
Mike saves Velda, killing many Communists in the process, and then exposes Lee
Deamer as really Oscar Deamer, a Soviet agent posing as an anti-Communist
politician. Mike kills Deamer, placing a fragment of the stolen documents in his
hand, so he will be discovered after death to be a martyr to the anti-Communist
cause, thus frustrating the Kremlin’s plan.
One Lonely N igh t engages the issue of the use of sexual seduction as one of
the allures of Communism. Initially in the novel, Ethel Brighton represents a
stereotype of the Communist woman, one who uses sexuality to corrupt men with
ideology. In the scene in which Ethel seduces Mike, she removes a fur coat she is
wearing to reveal her naked body underneath.' Mike comments: “My wallet fell
out of the pocket and I didn’t care. The sling on my gun rack wouldn’t come loose
and I broke it. She shouldn’t have done it. Damn it, she shouldn’t have done it! I
wanted to ask her some more .questions. Now I forgot what I wanted to ask her”
(56). The scene appears to be one in which the Communist woman, using her
sexual wiles, undermines the American man. Through seduction. Communism strips