malcolmgsw
First to clear up any misunderstandings this was Ranks attempt at an A feature.As usual it lacks originality.The substituted agent must have been used many times prior to this.Michael Craig gives a lacklustre performance with a truly awful mid Atlantic accent.The colour photogrAphy and the views of Paris are the best features of a truly forgettable film
mrghurby
For me, a thoroughly enjoyable, well-paced, beautifully shot and above-par acted thriller.The locations are interesting and vibrant, the fight scenes are well choreographed, fast (for their time) and thus more realistic than most I've seen from this period and the plot twist interesting enough, even 60 years later.It is for me, slightly reminiscent of a Hitchcock thriller with elements of an early Bond film. It also reminds me of a very good 1950s 'story for boys'.I have given it a 9/10 simply to try and counterbalance the unfairly low rating it has so far received - in reality I would rate it a 7 or 7½.Recommended to anyone interested in film-noir, 1950s Paris and/or appreciative of the beauty of mid-century Technicolor.
happytrigger-64-390517
For a french reviewer like me who love film noir, House Of Secrets is an absolute entertaining movie. I first loved all the Parisian locations (around rue du Bac, l'île Saint-Louis, Eiffel tower, rue Lamarck, an unknown restaurant) and Marseille.The plot with impersonation is interesting with some fine twists. The fights are real fast paced, destroying the furniture more violently than in American serials. The cinematography by Harry Waxman is very colorful and shadowy. The editing by the brilliant Sidney Hayers (soon to direct Circus Of Horrors and Burn Witch Burn) is real fast and raw.The best surprise again for a french reviewer is the casting of Gérard Oury as a badman, very surprising when you see his future top box office movies with Bourvil and Louis de Funès as a director... Swell souvenir.
rogerjillings
The film that made Michael Craig is a well paced colourful crime thriller shot in the location of Paris where Craig is mistakenly taken for a known smuggler who he resembles quite uncannily & is persuaded to go under-cover to infiltrate a counterfeiting organisation & also keep his cover with his smuggling colleagues.Apart from falling for the same local cabaret singer (Julia Arnall)who the real Steve Chancellor was enmeshed with, & the double crossing begins & along the way he struggle's to get to the truth until the climatic finale to unmask the ring leaders which include Brenda De Banzie & the ice cool menace of Anton Diffring.
