House of Secrets (1956)

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

HOUSE OF SECRETS is a French-set British thriller with much to recommend it. The clever plot sees the underrated Michael Craig going undercover as a small-time crook in order to bring down a large and ruthless criminal organisation. There's plenty of suspense and action here, the latter taking the form of some surprisingly brutal and protracted fight sequences set in hotel rooms and the like. This gives the film a modernity and realism that, for me, made it feel like an early Bond movie. Craig is a dependable hero and there's a solid cast to support him, including Geoffrey Keen and Brenda de Banzie, who was equally sinister in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. The plot begins slowly but draws you in to a break-neck climax and you'll enjoy every moment of it.

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.

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.