La maison des secrets

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.

As I was watching this I started to notice that the story arc seemed familiar. This 1956 film has all of the hallmarks of the 1960's James Bond films. The gangs, the double-crosses, the big schemes, the villain bosses, and the women. It's not a bad yarn.

For a french reviewer like me who love film noir, House Of Secrets is an absolute entertaining movie. I first loved all the Parisian locations (around rue du Bac, l'île Saint-Louis, Eiffel tower, rue Lamarck, an unknown restaurant) and Marseille.

The plot with impersonation is interesting with some fine twists. The fights are real fast paced, destroying the furniture more violently than in American serials. The cinematography by Harry Waxman is very colorful and shadowy. The editing by the brilliant Sidney Hayers (soon to direct Circus Of Horrors and Burn Witch Burn) is real fast and raw.

The best surprise again for a french reviewer is the casting of Gérard Oury as a badman, very surprising when you see his future top box office movies with Bourvil and Louis de Funès as a director...

Swell souvenir.

With such a cast list could this go wrong well there was a chance that some actors were miscast but on the whole the film and its mission were successful on a tight budget one thing that wasn't tight was the charming actress of supreme quality brenda de banzie wow what a women who could oozes sex appeal fully dressed by the sparkle in her eyes and a smile so wide and a hint of naughtiness simply having her in this makes it a 10

I just watched this film and having also read these reviews here I certainly agree with 2 of them...

Definitely this is an A rather than a B and is no doubt this has all the hallmarks of prototype Bond film.

I finished watching this movie thinking how much I would have enjoyed Michael Craig as the first James Bond.... I'm saying that based on putting aside Sean Connery's role and rather thinking of Craig being the first to play the role in the Bond franchise...

I personally think we would look back at the first Bond film (franchise that is) and might well consider Craig to have been the quintessential Bond as perhaps Ian Fleming might have seen him when discussing a film adaptation of his book... I know Fleming was more minded towards Christopher Lee, to some degree, especially as Lee had actually lived that role in his wartime experiences... however, I think Michael Craig would have brought a piece of every later Bond we have come to know.

I really enjoyed this film, I think some parts were rushed; probably to keep within a set time for cinema purposes but I would have preferred to see those edits kept in the film as the running time wasn't a factor as I watched... I have a habit of first forwarding on some occasions or making tea... scenes like the death/murder of a supporting character by the baddies or Craig's diversion on his way to the airport to name but a few.

Overall I really enjoyed this film and the performance of Michael Craig.... I've seen him many times before and this character and his performance stood out to me as he really added to the whole story ...

I'm not someone that cares to much about cinematography, editing, plot holes or having to suspend belief .... a film for me is good if it takes my eye off the time and allows me to just enjoy it without thinking about what's going to happen next. ( I hate spoiling it for myself by working out who did it, how they did it or who will win etc let's be frank we can all do that to some degree and I never get why reviewers always seem to want to tell us how quickly they managed it or how unbelievable a film was {Its a film... they are all unbelievable... if anyone wants believable then watch a documentary!}... sorry I'm digressing)

So I would recommend this film if you want to escape looking at that watch for 90 odd minutes and enjoying a good old adventure yarn.

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