Panic in the City

One of the earliest made for TV films that I recall is Panic In The City which is a no frills thriller about some rogue Soviet agents assembling a bomb in the city of Los Angeles. Nehemiah Persoff is our rogue agent and he's got pretend defector scientist Oscar Beregi on the job. This is something that has been years in the making.

When one of the scientists as he's later identified collapses on an LA street and is brought to the hospital he's diagnosed with a hopeless case of radiation poisoning. But someone breaches security to kill this man afraid of what he might spill. That brings the FBI in the person of Howard Duff and and his immediate superior Stephen McNally on the job.

There are a couple of good female parts. Linda Cristal as a doctor who diagnoses the original victim and conceivably could get something romantic going with Duff if things weren't breaking so fast. Also all American Anne Jeffreys who played perky Marion Kerby on Topper is in a totally different kind of part as a Russian agent.

It is a bit slow but really picks up the pace in the last third. As for the climax, all I will say is nuclear bombs should really be built in proper facilities and not someone's basement.