Tödliches Geheimnis

This is an insanely underrated film, faithfully screenplayed by Nigel Balchin from his engrossing and subtle novel of the same name. After I saw the film back in the 80's I trawled the pre-internet second hand bookshops to read as many of his other works as I could, including The Small Back Room, Fall Of The Sparrow, Sort Of Traitors, Sundry Creditors, and others more or less excellent too but none quite up to the standards here.

Non-medically trained psycho-analyst Felix Milne is involved with two practices (one paying and one for the poor) two women (one his wife one the woman he thinks he loves) and two important patients (one a potentially violent schizo and one himself). The schizo's story is prised out under hypnosis, while the shrink's story is prised out through events. And as usual where human emotions are rampant events spiral out of control to an unguessable outcome. Two points: there's more of a story going on underneath the main story, there are many sub-dramas going on; and I think along with Obsession the film most perfectly captures the post War zeitgeist of a London pulling itself together again. In addition to a good story and good acting there's some splendid photographic framing and atmospheric homely scenes to mull over, although the washed out copy I just saw didn't really do it full justice – UK Channel 4 used to screen a decent copy so hopefully that will resurface someday. It's a pity the main character had to become a Canadian – but it was probably more convincing than acidic Burgess Meredith playing an Englishman! Kieron Moore was a bit more wooden than he needed to be, however Dulcie Gray was so charming as Milne's long-suffering wife she was almost a extra diversion.

Some people might deplore the lack of grittiness, sordidness, sex and yobbishness so it's not for them - although there is one violent scene it would be handled far more graphically in colour hd cgi nowadays. It's a film that's obviously old-fashioned (as everything is sooner or later), wordy with people apparently with marbles in their mouths, thoughtful and thought-provoking on simultaneously simple and deep levels. I notice that at present there are no second opinions available on IMDb, that's because it's clearly an excellent and worthy film it'd be madness to dis.

Meredith shines in this underrated film that may be the finest depictions of the profession of psychotherapy ever made. He is first-rate as he portrays a therapist struggling with his personal flaws and profound doubts as to his effectiveness with clients. Exciting, well-written, superbly directed, and excellently filmed by cinematographer Freddie Francis, this will have a special significance to any counselor who has ever wondered if he or she was doing any good for themselves or anyone else. I saw this film first as a young boy and while I did not appreciate the subtleties in the script at the time, I found myself drawn to the character of the therapist. Eventually, I became one myself and perhaps this film planted the seed of interest in psychology and psychotherapy. When a film has that sort of impact, it is nothing less than a treasure.

It comes as a surprise watching this to discover that psychiatry, in this country, was in such a state of infancy. Although it was about to be introduced into the NHS, in the early post-war years the insane asylums, where anyone who didn't fit the norm, tended to be tossed still prevailed. The mental effects of warfare were a factor in alerting the authorities to cause and effect more clearly than early childhood incidents, which parents tended to do their best to conceal. So, here we have a film of vital social interest, so intriguing and indeed stunning a 1947 audience that the film receive many plaudits and became the official British entry at Cannes. Burgess Meredith puts in a fine and convincing performance and the entire film is presented in such a way as to titillate, excite and inform with the added bonus of a scary suspense element and killings.

The first film to explore the use of lay practitioners in the Freudian theory, this film is so far ahead of its time as to be psychologically shocking. American Burgess Meredith's performance is one of the best of his career. The absolute certainty with which he portrays the uncertainty of the human psyche (his own as well as others') is the film's brilliance.

Torn with personal ambivalence, Felix is also torn with the knowledge that he is unable to save his worthwhile patient and his loving wife. A truly under-acknowledged and underestimated film, it deserves a viewing by all interested in film art, and in the development of psychoanalytic technique.

This is a highly delicate psychological drama of a case of schizophrenia which proves too difficult to handle correctly. It is typical of such cases that they are completely unpredictable and can appear as jovial and harmonious as any perfectly healthy person when suddenly something else takes over which is too terrible for words. The director himself had a war background from both world wars and knew what he was directing as he visualized war traumas on film. The war scenes here are just a short parenthesis in the middle of the film and are passed by never to return, but they provide the essential key to the film and its horrible account of a traumatized war victim who never can get rid of his past. The dialogue is splendid and extremely sustained all the way through, and the three ladies also play an important part. Above all, it is Burgess Meredith's film who makes a perfectly convincing realization of a psychiatrist's difficulties when he is faced with an extreme case. As a psychological war drama, it is of the very highest rank and the higher, for showing the war as little as possible.