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Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies

Feb 5, 2002

0h 57m

★ 0.0

New Secrets Behind One of the Greatest Intelligence Losses in U.S. History

Overview

Chronicling the lives and covert activities of the so-called "atom spies" in the 1940s, including the big one that got away, Theodore Alvin Hall.

Genres

Documentary

History

Production Companies

PBS

Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Narrator

Liev Schreiber

Self

Robert Louis Benson

Self

John Earl Haynes

Self

Sam Cohen

Self

Joseph Albright

Self

Harvey Klehr

In 1995, former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin and ex-CIA Director William Colby collaborated in an unexpected way. They made a video game. The Great Game traces how both men rose to the tops of their fields following World War II, before falling out of favor with their respectives agencies — on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. For Kalugin, a growing discontent with the KGB’s treatment of Russians radicalized him against the institution. Meanwhile William Colby, an OSS operative and the CIA’s man on the ground in Vietnam, was fired by President Ford after testifying before Congress about controversial CIA programs like MKULTRA and CoIntelPro. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, both living on American soil, Colby and Kalugin played themselves in Spycraft, a multi-million dollar game that was among the most advanced of its time — and is now almost entirely forgotten.

0.0

Intercept: A Century of Signals Intelligence

Sep 5, 2023

A thought provoking documentary feature film providing a comprehensive exploration of the evolution of signals intelligence over the past century. Whether you're intrigued by the secretive world of intelligence agencies or concerned about the implications of digital surveillance, this film will leave you with a deeper understanding of the role signals intelligence plays in society.

6.6

K-19: The Widowmaker

Jul 19, 2002

When Russia's first nuclear submarine malfunctions on its maiden voyage, the crew must race to save the ship and prevent a nuclear disaster.

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0.0

Courting Danger

Invalid Date

Three-time tennis champion Alice Marble defies her coach, leaves the sport to become an Allied spy, gathering crucial Nazi intel for the Nuremberg trials.

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0.0

Crisis en el Caribe (Noticiero ICAIC)

Jan 1, 1962

No overview available.

4.7

Railway Station

Jan 1, 1980

Warsaw's Central Railway Station. 'Someone has fallen asleep, someone's waiting for somebody else. Maybe they'll come, maybe they won't. The film is about people looking for something.

0.0

Los Alamos: The Beginning

Jan 1, 1982

A documentary composed of historical footage and contemporary interviews from the men and women of Los Alamos, recalling their experiences of the community and the creation of the atomic bomb from the inception of the program in 1943.

6.5

Charlie Wilson's War

Dec 19, 2007

A Texas congressman sets a series of events in motion when he conspires with a CIA operative to aid Afghan mujahideen rebels fighting the Soviets.

8.0

De Gaulle, la bombe à tout prix !

Sep 11, 2025

No overview available.

7.4

The Right Stuff

Oct 20, 1983

At the dawn of the Space Race, seven test pilots set out to become the first American astronauts to enter space. However, the road to making history brings momentous challenges.

7.2

Red Shadow over the White House

Oct 13, 2024

As the 2024 elections approach, Russian interference in American politics – through spies or agents of influence – is a troubling reality. Vladimir Putin is counting on Donald Trump’s victory to weaken support for Ukraine. Why does Trump almost always support Russia? Is he compromised? During his presidency, did he betray the United States in favor of the Kremlin? And why has the Republican Party shifted its stance toward Russia? Answering these questions means shedding light on a labyrinthine espionage and manipulation operation. Still ongoing, it began forty years ago, during the final years of the Cold War. Back then, Trump was merely a real estate developer, and Putin was a young KGB agent. This operation contains many dark areas, but some hold pieces of the puzzle. A former KGB leader, infiltrated “illegals,” a former Trump advisor, and former senior officials from the CIA and FBI, as well as a former prosecutor, provide testimony. . . . [taken from Nilaya Productions]

7.5

Empire of the Sun

Dec 9, 1987

Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.

8.0

The Rosenbergs: Atomic Spies

Feb 8, 2025

Based on testimony by Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass, the Rosenbergs are arrested by the FBI. The couple is accused of passing secret information about the atomic bomb to the USSR. Though the Rosenbergs maintain their innocence from the start, the media and public opinion seem to have condemned them from day one. The trial does nothing to change this and ends in a death sentence. On Friday June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed in the electric chair. Julius first, then Ethel. 30 years later, the truth finally comes out. Declassified FBI archives reveal that Ethel was not guilty of being a spy; she was merely married to one. Julius did indeed commit espionage for the Soviet Union, though primarily as a recruiter, nothing at all like the fictional James Bond. This documentary, made entirely of archival footage and animated illustrations, offers a tale of espionage as well as a complex family tragedy.

7.7

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Jun 10, 1959

The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple -- lovers turned friends -- recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.

7.6

Silenced

Nov 19, 2014

Three National Security whistleblowers fight to reveal the darkest corners of America's war on terror, challenging a government that is increasingly determined to maintain secrecy.

6.4

The Good Shepherd

Dec 11, 2006

Edward Wilson, the only witness to his father's suicide and member of the Skull and Bones Society while a student at Yale, is a morally upright young man who values honor and discretion, qualities that help him to be recruited for a career in the newly founded OSS. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.

8.0

1968: A Year of War, Turmoil and Beyond

Jul 20, 2018

The Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the May events in France, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, the Prague Spring, the Chicago riots, the Mexico Summer Olympics, the presidential election of Richard Nixon, the Apollo 8 space mission, the hippies and the Yippies, Bullitt and the living dead. Once upon a time the year 1968.

6.1

Wasp Network

Jan 29, 2020

Havana, Cuba, 1990. René González, an airplane pilot, unexpectedly flees the country, leaving behind his wife Olga and his daughter Irma, and begins a new life in Miami, where he becomes a member of an anti-Castro organization.

0.0

Billion Dollar Spy

Invalid Date

Set against the high-stakes backdrop of the late Cold War, Adolf Tolkachev, an ordinary man who risks everything to pass thousands of pages of top-secret Soviet intelligence to the U.S. Despite repeated rejections by a wary CIA, Tolkachev persisted, embodying the courage to stand against a regime that betrayed its own people. Finally, finding an ally in CIA agent Tom Lenihan, Tolkachev was able to fundamentally shift the balance of power, proving that true patriotism lies not in blind allegiance but in the willingness to challenge a government when it strays from its ideals.

7.6

Sword of the Stranger

Sep 29, 2007

Pursued by formidable Chinese assassins, young Kotaro and his dog run into No Name, a mysterious stranger who gets pulled into the chase. The unlikely companions form a bond over saving the dog from a poison attack, but chaos erupts when the assassins find Kotaro, and No Name must face his past before a horrible fate is met again.

Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies Trailers