High Treason (1951)

Acting and writing are as close to perfect as anyone can expect from a movie.None of the actors are household names today, but each and every one is about as perfect in his role as one could expect, even from those magnificent British players.Writers created a nearly perfect script, with tension and sympathy, with drama and excitement. Villains are quite definitely villains -- but not from their viewpoint. They are working for peace and democracy. They recruit new members among those seeking "a world without war" and "a government run by the people."Surely they are communists, and in reality -- as opposed to what they tell their potential recruits and followers -- are agents of a foreign power, in this case the Soviet Union, but never are they labeled as such.So a viewer can watch and enjoy without political considerations, with, instead, concern about the intended villainy, worry for the possible innocent victims; one need not think about labels, such as "communist" or "Soviet agent," but ponder instead the fact that collectivist and statist ideologies brush off the fact that violence and initiated force always have victims, however lofty the proclaimed ideals.One of the policemen tells a leader of the saboteurs, "But surely history, and recent history also shows us ... that wherever people have known the light, they don't tolerate the darkness for very long." Ah, would that that were true.Even right here in these United States, ignorant or stupid or, yes, villainous people are praising and supporting the darkness. Witness the popularity of Che T-shirts, of riots on college campuses to prevent other opinions from being heard, of street demonstrations created for the purpose of violence -- and if the results are not darkness, and intended to bring darkness, then darkness has not ever been the goal of political violence.This movie, "High Treason," was produced before most of the people around now to see it were even born, even before I was born. Yet it is still relevant, as warning of what can happen now, and as a history lesson of what actually did happen."High Treason" is an excellent motion picture, one I had never heard of before accidentally finding a very good print at YouTube. I highly recommend it. In fact, I urge you to see it.

This film is extremely cleverly made up. No one knows anything in the beginning, and the actors and audience alike are left in complete ignorance of what is going on and like the police only left with a few loose ends leading nowhere, until at last Mr Ward is caught in a picture, which provides the key to untangling the extremely comprehensive plot with its circle of saboteurs.Another key is the tutorial institute, and some of the finest scenes are from there. for instance when the inspector has to attend a music performance of thoroughly modern music not sounding very well, and you can see how he suffers, while the others pretend to understand the meaning of this abstract katzenjammer.Kenneth Griffith makes an unforgettable performance as the martyr of the intrigue, getting caught up in a web he can't extricate himself from and still making something of the hero of the drama - without him the police would never have arrived in time.Another striking performance is Anthony Nicholls as the MP making a thoroughly charming and cultivated presence with great villainy hidden beneath. His final conversation with the commodore is the top of the film with the lights efficiently going out...Notable is also Joan Hickson as the mother, playing a much more convincing and heart-rending role than her later better known ones as Miss Marple.Another vital part is Mary Morris as Anna Braun, irresistibly beautiful like an impressing viper full of venom whom you just must be paralyzed by for fascination until she stings...But the film is full of such characters. You can never imagine that Stringer is not actually played by a Russian, his accent is so perfectly Russian, and the music adds to it as well, especially at the tutorial college with its concerts as the perfect smokescreen for a truly devilish coven - the film reminds not a little of Hitchcock's "Sabotage" in its recklessly cruel set-up.

After a big explosion in the London Docks, Scotland Yard and MI5 join forces to find the ones responsible. Meanwhile the bombers, a group of communists, set their eyes on a much larger target, several power stations around the country, including London's Battersea power station. The group have enlisted a weakling shop seller as one of their helpers, but he slowly starts to crumble and fall apart. Meanwhile the investigators go over each lead and are slowly able to identify members of the group. But they don't know when the next attack will be or where.A Cold War thriller that starts with a bang and ends with a big finale inside Battersea power station. By shifting the focus back and forth between the investigators and the Communist group (which is never mentioned directly, but strongly implied), including the moments where their paths cross, the movie maintains tension and suspense. The cast isn't too well-known but contains a ton of familiar British character actors, from the lead detectives, Liam Redmond ('Night of the Demon') and André Morell ('The Bridge on the River Kwai') to the leader of the group, John Bailey ('Never Let Go') to Geoffrey Keen (Sir Frederick Gray in half a dozen James Bond movies) and so on.Directed and co-written by Roy Boulting, one half of the Boulting brothers ('Brighton Rock', 'Seven Days to Noon'), and with future acclaimed cinematographer Gilbert Taylor behind the camera ('Star Wars', 'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'), this movie is expertly made. It's got a nice pace to it, and by mixing interior studio sets and exterior on-location shots in London, as well as inside Battersea power station, the movie also looks pretty nice. It's not a classic by any means, but hard to go wrong with this one.

An otherwise workmanlike British thriller with familiar overtones of anti-Communist paranoia is salvaged by a lively script that underplays the bellicose propagandizing of other, similar witch-hunts. The emphasis instead is on action and character and some colorful local dialogue, as a network of saboteurs infiltrates the highest (and lowest) levels of democracy with nefarious plots to undermine England's power structure. The enemy agents are never precisely identified (it's clear who they are long before the authorities catch them 'Red' handed), and of course they're no match for the stiff upper lips of Scotland Yard, although it takes an extended gun battle at the Battersea power station to prove it. The film was less flattering and thus less popular than its predecessor, 'Seven Days to Noon', but seen today it remains an enjoyable, well-crafted relic from the warmer days of the Cold War.