The Secret of Stamboul

Really a well done production, with everybody giving it their all. A delight to see Peter Haddon again, who played Lord Peter Wimsey in The Silent Passenger. Frank Vosey is incomparably evil as the head of the Turkish Secret Service--the stuff of nightmares. Mason and Hobson are great; the setting is realistic. Great fun. (You'll probably find this under the title, The Spy in White)

The one sentence introduction to the entry for this film on IMDb is erroneous. It says: 'A British agent travels to middle east during the war in order to spark a revolution.' This is wrong in every respect. James Mason is the lead, and he is not an agent. It is not during the War. And he wants to prevent, not spark, a revolution in Turkey. And he does not travel to the Middle East, he travels to Istanbul, which is not really the Middle East. This film has been reissued under its alternative title of THE SPY IN WHITE. The 'Stamboul' of the listed title is an old-fashioned spelling of Istanbul. There are two female leads, Kay Walsh as the daughter of an English businessman, and Valerie Hobson (with her eyes seeming much bigger than usual because her hair is pulled back for the entire film) as the young Russian exile, Baroness Tania Volkerov (or some such surname). There are quite a lot of location shots of Istanbul in this film. It was interesting to see the riverside at that time, which still had all the old Ottoman houses standing ranged right along the quays. Those are all gone now. There are two wicked villains in this film, both of them Turkish of course. One is played by Frank Vosper, and the other by Cecil Ramage. Vosper is slinky, sly, and murderous. Ramage is pompous, vain, vengeful, and power-mad. He wants to stage a coup against the Turkish Republic and reinstate the Sultanate, with himself as Sultan, naturally. Mason and Hobson want to stop him single-handed. Will they succeed? Can they do it? Will one of them be killed? Indeed, will two of them be killed? Will Ataturk's legacy be destroyed? (He is not mentioned by name, by the way.) Can the goodies stop the baddies? This is based on a novel by Dennis Wheatley entitled THE EUNUCH OF STAMBOUL, written with George Alexander Hill (1892-1968). Hill, later a Colonel, was a British intelligence officer with an adventurous career, who later taught Kim Philby how to use explosives. He published two volumes of memoirs. He was portrayed by Hugh Fraser in the 1983 television series REILLY: ACE OF SPIES. This film may not be deep or profound, but it does deal in serious issues to do with Turkey, a country which is still of great worry and concern today. James Mason has a thin moustache in this film, but I prefer him without one.

This was a novel by Dennis Wheatley written together with George Alexander Hill, who was in the spying business, actually a colonel in the British Intelligence and tutor of Kim Philby later on, so he knew his business, and Wheatley had the right sort of person to collaborate with. Like all Wheatley's novels, it is not very deep but rather the contrary, and all the adventures, like in all Wheatley's novels, are just casual entertainment in efforts to create effects. However, the acting is very good, here you have the pleasure of seeing both James Mason and Kay Walsh as very young and attractive, and to this comes the impressive beauty of Valerie Hobson as a Russian exiled aristocrat - we never learn what happened to her mother, the baroness, who is not heard of any more after having been watching the abominable Frank Vosper, temporarily a prisoner, who is the eunuch of Stamboul, a very nasty sort of fellow and an extremely revolting character, much worse than any of Sydney Greenstreet's villains. It's all about the danger of a revolution in Turkey, which James Mason accidentally stumbles on and gets involved with, like an early James Bond, almost getting killed in the effort, and he actually experiences a most unpleasant way of execution; but there are many other caualties in this Turkish mess, one finally getting a classical Turkish revenge. This film is actually relevant today, considering the Turkish present situation with similar ambitions of restoring caliphates and sultanates. The music is also quite good all the way through.

I acquired this movie when I bought a DVD with eight or nine old mystery films. I figured, what the heck, right, nine old movies I'd never heard of for $6.00. How bad could it be.

And in fact, as something of a movie buff I appreciated these old films. This one was by far the best. Don't expect great acting or a scintillating plot. But James Mason and his supporting cast do not disappoint in delivering a bit of a swashbuckling type performance with a few twists and turns that are for the most part predictable but enjoyable nonetheless. I think the film maker intended Mason to look a bit like Errol Flynn. It's also interesting to see how in 1936 they presented Turkey, where most of the movie takes place.

It's a good Saturday afternoon watch.