Watch The Secret Partner For Free
The Secret Partner
A shipping tycoon with a record becomes a suspect when money goes missing from the company vault.
Release : | 1961 |
Rating : | 6.6 |
Studio : | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Draughtsman, |
Cast : | Stewart Granger Haya Harareet Bernard Lee Hugh Burden Lee Montague |
Genre : | Drama Thriller Mystery |
Watch Trailer
Cast List
Related Movies
Reviews
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Redundant and unnecessary.
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
THE SECRET PARTNER, is a quite good suspense thriller. We are taken down a path of intrigue, and a man's search for the truth. Or maybe not. Stewart Granger is very good, in a quiet performance that runs him from pillar to post. We see him being blackmailed by a dentist of all people, who knows that Granger was an s thief before this job. . The dentist is approached by a man in a mask and told there might be a way to drug Granger to get the combination to the safe. He goes through with the plot, and the money goes into the hands of the masked man. Granger runs all over the place to find that man and clear his name. But then something just does not seem right. The plot is off somewhat, and when it is finally revealed we see that Granger is the masked man, and had planned the whole thing to rob his business. The wife was in on the whole thing. He does it all for her love, but is mistaken that she never wanted money, just his love. And he could have kept her if only he had not used her over and over in his plots. So as we see here, money can't buy love, as she leaves him for another man, and he returns the money, because now it has no value without her. The end is similar to the end of the LIGHT TOUCH, where the art thief returns the stolen religious painting to the church so he can have the love of the girl. Granger is much better here, than in that film. A very good thriller.
The Secret Partner is one of the few films to show at length what it was like to go to the dentist and have treatment under gas, something that everyone in the 40s and 50s would have experienced but is now unknown to present generations. It is a very authentic reconstruction, although when Stewart Granger comes round before being given "the truth drug" it is very unlikely he would have had enough of his wits about him that quickly to follow his plan to fool the dentist. I certainly could not on the times I had gas. But for a low budget film it is an excellent story and has a good ending. I am not a great fan of Stewart granger but enjoy this film, pity it is not out on DVD
There's nothing particularly offensive about this later effort in Stewart Granger's career. Basil Dearden directs with mature competence, Bernard Miles provides his usual solid support, and the plot carries a viewer along without having to drag him by the heels. If Haya Harareet is no more than a blandly attractive figure as Granger's wife, well, so what? Granger is a well-off businessman who has one of those shameful secrets in his past that make blackmail profitable. The extortionist is Granger's dentist. I never did like dentists anyway. They're always smiling and saying things like, "Turn this way a little," and then they hurt you even though you've never done them any harm. To top it off, you have to pay them.Anyway, this weedy little surgeon is visited one night by a mysterious masked man who instructs him at gun point to knock Granger out with gas, inject him with a fast-acting barbiturate, and squeeze out of him the combination to the office safe, meanwhile making impressions of the office keys. The whining little creep complies with a combination of fear and greed.Evidently the masked man has set up a frame because as the Superintendent, Bernard Miles, investigates the crime the evidence begins to pile up against Granger himself. Granger escapes the grasp of the police and most of the film is taken up with his pursuit of the mysterious man in the mask.There's a twist at the end. The prognosis is problematic but it seems that just desserts will be served, followed, one hopes, by a postprandial snort of nitrous oxide.Granger had a long career beginning in Britain in a few classy productions before moving to MGM around 1950 to become a kind of latter-day Errol Flynn. He was handsome enough. His voice was a resonant baritone. And he looked good in period wardrobe. But he was more than dismissive of his own career, downright bitter at times. The curious thing is that, as he aged, he STILL looked good in a stereotypical way. He went gray at the temples and seemed never less than vigorous, sometimes distinguished, but the trajectory of his fame followed a familiar downward arc. But if he'd never made a movie other than, say, "Scaramouche" or one or two others, he'd be worth at least a footnote.I can't say too much for this particular movie. It's strictly routine. It's the sort of thing that Hollywood was grinding out as B features during the 1930s -- mysterious masked man prompts scared dentist into crime and frames hero. Should someone throw open a door and find a ransacked apartment, the musical score goes, "Ta-DAHHH!" All familiar stuff. But, as I say, it's in no way offensive. It's just that there's nothing very original about any of its properties. With a little tweaking it could have been an inexpensive Charlie Chan mystery.
This movie may not be up to the technical standards of today, but this is the kind of movie that gives you entertainment without trying to pander to some cause, or make me feel guilty about driving an SUV. There isn't any raw sex, exposed skin, car crashes, vulgar language or hidden messages. The only gun fire is target shooting, and nobody throws a punch as I recall. Yet, this is the sort of entertainment that my generation expected when we went to the movies. The plot is well conceived and keeps you guessing until the very end. The actors at the time this movie was made were very popular at the box office, and all gave an excellent performance. The female lead is an Israli actress who played opposite Charleton Heston in Ben Hur. Stewart Granger made movies for both American and English film companies, and could have made an excellent James Bond. The back drop of 1961 London has the feel of an American B & W detective movie of the "film noire" genre. Unlike some English movies made at the time, the dialog is not filled with English idioms. This is a little gem that you can watch with your relatives during the Hollidays.