The Secret Place (film)

The Secret Place is a 1957 British crime film that was the directorial debut of Clive Donner.[1] It stars Belinda Lee, Ronald Lewis, and David McCallum in a supporting role.[2]

The Secret Place
Directed byClive Donner
Produced byJohn Bryan
associate
Anthony Perry
Written byLinette Perry
StarringBelinda Lee
Ronald Lewis and Michael Brooke
Music byClifton Parker
CinematographyErnest Steward
Edited byPeter Bezencenet
Production
company
John Bryan Productions
Distributed byRank
Release date
27 May 1957
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Crime melodrama set in the badly bombed London after the war. A diamond robbery is carried out by small-time crooks, and an adolescent boy finds himself unwittingly caught up after discovering they have hidden the loot in his home.[2][3]

In East London, young Freddie Haywood has a crush on kiosk attendant Molly Wilson, who is engaged to Gerry Carter. Gerry is a member of a criminal gang working from a car dealership where Molly's brother Mike works. Gerry, Mike and their friend, Steve, are planning a diamond robbery for which they need a policeman's uniform. On instructions from Gerry, Molly asks Freddie to borrow the uniform of his policeman father.

After the robbery of a Hatton Garden jewellers, Gerry hides the diamonds inside Molly's record player. Not knowing this, Molly gives the player to Freddie as a thank you gift. Freddie discovers the diamonds and the gang go after him.[4]

Cast

Production

Clive Donner had been an editor on films like Genevieve and I am a Camera; this was his first film as director.[5]

Filming took place at Pinewood Studios starting in June 1956.[6][7]

Anthony Steel was meant to play the male lead but he broke his contract with Rank and was replaced by Ronald Lewis.[8] It was a breakthrough role for David McCallum.[9]

Reception

Variety said "the East End setting among London’s bombed sites provides an intriguing background for this crime meller. But the story unspools too casually, dissipating too much of the potential tension.. As it stands, it's a modest b.o. bet. moderately entertaining."[10]

Lindsay Anderson, writing in the New Statesman called the opening sequence "the most exciting sequence seen on a (wide) screen in this country in the last five years" and said the film was "a remarkably assured and craftsmanlike start" for Donner's career.[11]

The Monthly Film Bulletin said the film "gains strongly over the average British crime thriller in its concern to establish a realistic background and setting. The East End locations are well chosen and freshly observed; the characters (apart from the two criminals, who seem rather unduly public school) quite convincingly inhabit this world of grey back streets and derelict bomb-sites. The balance between action sequences (the neatly-staged robbery and the final chase) and character study is well sustained, and Belinda Lee gives her best performance to date."[12]

The British Film Institute praised the "remarkable debut screenplay by Linette Perry, which manages to intertwine the generic conventions of the heist thriller with a simple, but poetic, moral drama. In Perry's world the secret places stretch beyond the physical – the record player, gang hideouts and derelict buildings – into the hearts of the young protagonists. Faced with opportunity and misguided by love, the characters are all confronted with their own buried selfishness."[13]

Filmink called it a "minor classic" which is the one movie of Belinda Lee's career close to cult status.[14]

References
  1. "The Secret Place 1957 | Home of British Films". Britmovie. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  2. "The Secret Place (1957) – Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast". AllMovie. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  3. "The Secret Place". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  4. "SUSPENSE THRILLER". The Australian Women's Weekly. 25 (26). Australia. 4 December 1957. p. 48. Retrieved 2 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. E. A. (19 July 1964). "LOCAL NEWS: BANKHEAD'S BACK, OTHER ITEMS". New York Times. ProQuest 115852896.
  6. No More Slapstick for Me Authors: Edward Coring and Belinda Lee Date: Tuesday, May 15, 1956 Publication: Daily Mail (London, England) Issue: 18684 p3
  7. Nepean, Edith (10 November 1956). "Round the British Studios". Picture Show. 67 (1754). London. p. 1.
  8. Vagg, Stephen (23 September 2020). "The Emasculation of Anthony Steel: A Cold Streak Saga". Filmink.
  9. "A REBEL GETS ANGRY". The Australian Women's Weekly. 26 ([?]1). Australia. 20 August 1958. p. 57. Retrieved 2 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. Review of film at Variety
  11. Let's Face It Anderson, Lindsay. New Statesman and Nation; London Vol. 53, Iss. 1353, (Feb 16, 1957): 202.
  12. "The Secret Place". Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 24 no. 278. March 1957. p. 30.
  13. The Secret Place at BFI Screenonline
  14. Vagg, Stephen (7 September 2020). "A Tale of Two Blondes: Diana Dors and Belinda Lee". Filmink.
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