Ministry of Fear **** (1944, Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Dan Duryea, Alan Napier) – Classic Movie Review 759

This thoroughly enjoyable film noir thriller was made in 1944 by the great Viennese director Fritz Lang, who probably knew as little about its source author as about England. But he did knew a lot about movies, so he wisely copied the patented Hitchcock formula for such things. And he’s come up with a good copy too.

Lang and his screenwriter Seton I Miller mount a raid on one of Graham Greene’s finest novels as their source work for their involved, richly enjoyable escapist spy yarn. It’s made in Hollywood with a lofty offhand disdain for the realities of the British way of life and the unshakeable conviction that studio re-creations and sets are always better than the real thing.

Though an Oscar-winner for The Lost Weekend (1945), the always undervalued Ray Milland is on fighting form as the wartime hero, Stephen Neale, newly released from custody after two years in a mental asylum.

On his way back to London he goes to a local fete well attended by murderous Nazi spies and is given the winner’s prize of a cake in a guess-the-weight contest even though he hasn’t got the right answer. The ‘winning’ cake weight at the Lembridge fête is 4lb 15.5oz, by the way. This English village seems to take a leaf out of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple’s home village, equally full of eccentrics and murderers.

C

There follows a fast-moving, somewhat preposterous but always engaging tale the pulls in stolen microfilm, a train crash, a fake seance and then murder. He’s going to need help, but who can Milland trust?

The great director Lang directs at an involvingly dynamic pace and with attractive stylish flourishes. So what if it’s all fake — it’s only a movie, not real life.

Alan Napier (butler Alfred in the 60s Batman TV series) has a plum role as Dr J M Forrester, who works for the Ministry of Home Security, a genuine British governmental department established in 1939 to defend the UK’s civilian population against enemy action. So some things are real, after all. His book is called The Psychoanalysis of Nazidom, probably not real.

Napier explained: “My agent rang up and said, ‘I think you are going to play on “Batman”.’ I said ‘What is “Batman”?’ He said, ‘Don’t you read the comics?’ I said, ‘No, never.’ He said, ‘I think you are going to be Batman’s butler.’ I said, ‘How do I know I want to be Batman’s butler?’ He said, ‘It may be worth over $100,000.’ So I said ‘I am Batman’s butler'”.

Marjorie Reynolds (born Marjorie Goodspeed), Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Dan Duryea and Erskine Sandford co-star.

Milland would go on to make an excellent star in a real Hitchcock movie, Dial M for Murder (1954).

Fritz Lang’s M, the first great serial killer movie, is brilliantly restored in a 111-minute version, and re-released in UK cinemas in 2014.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 759

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