My Son John

My Son John is a 1952 American political drama film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Robert Walker and Dean Jagger. Walker plays the title character, a middle-class college graduate whom his parents suspect may be a communist spy.

The strongly anticommunist film, produced during the height of McCarthyism, received an Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. The nomination was later viewed as a possible attempt by the motion picture industry to signal its loyalty to the ongoing anticommunist campaign. Retrospective reviews have characterized it as a propaganda film indicative of attitudes during the Second Red Scare.

My Son John was Walker's final role; he died in August 1951, midway through principal photography.