Secret People ** (1952, Valentina Cortese, Serge Reggiani, Audrey Hepburn, Charles Goldner) – Classic Movie Review 7598

Director Thorold Dickinson’s dark and downbeat 1951 thriller Secret People is a sluggishly handled, unusually colourless Ealing Studios drama of intrigue, which suffers from a lack of suspense, a surfeit of ideology and a low level of characterisation, despite the acting efforts of an international cast of very worthy actors.

Valentina Cortese stars as Maria Brentano, an adopted foreigner in London, the older sister of Nora (Audrey Hepburn, aged just 23). The sisters flee to London after their father is murdered by a European dictator in 1930.

[Spoiler alert] However, in 1937, Maria joins in a bomb plot to kill the dictator who killed her father, a plot hatched in Paris by her former lover Louis (Serge Reggiani). But, when an innocent bystander is accidentally killed, Maria helps the police to arrest the plotters.

Secret People was critically acclaimed in its day, and it remains interesting and intelligent. But it is a rather grim, alienating film, with some unsympathetic characters, and is unavoidably an unlikeable examination of the morality of terrorists in the Thirties, which clearly interests Dickinson more than the thriller elements of his film. Cortese’s performance and character somewhat redeem the film, though.

Also in the cast are Charles Goldner, Serge Reggiani, Megs Jenkins, Irene Worth, Athene Seyler, Michael Shepley, Reginald Tate, Geoffrey Hibbert, Sydney Tafler, John Ruddock, Michael Allan, Norman Williams, John Field, John Penrose, Michael Ripper, Edward Evans, Ingeborg Wells and Sam Kydd.

It is based on an original story by Thorold Dickinson, with a screenplay by Thorold Dickinson, Wolfgang Wilhelm and Christianna Brandt.

Secret People is directed by Thorold Dickinson, runs 96 minutes, is made by Ealing Studios, is released by General Film Distributors, is written by Thorold Dickinson, Wolfgang Wilhelm and Christianna Brandt, based on an original story by Thorold Dickinson,  is shot in black and white by Gordon Dines, is produced by Sidney Cole, and is scored by Roberto Gerhard.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7598

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Audrey Hepburn, aged 23, in Secret People.