La maison des secrets

Steve Chancellor is dead. That causes a crimp in a CIA sting operation on a gold-smuggling ring that is branching out into counterfeiting. Fortunately, seaman Michael Craig looks exactly like him, so he is inserted into the operations. As he gets into fist fights with various members of the group,he gradually moves up in the operations, until he is able to lead the law enforcement operations directly to the people. They are holding off until they can grab everyone, so Craig has to continue the impersonation. However, the bad guys have a plant in the Surete.

I's a nice spies-vs-crooks thriller, with an able cast that includes Brenda de Banzies, David Kousof, Gerard Oury, and Eric Pohlmann, running from Paris to Marseilles. Of course it's almost all shot on sets, with a few stock photos to lend that ambience so desired by big movie concerns. Guy Green directs with an eye owards thrills more than character exposition, and the ultimate solution is not what I expected, which is a good thing in the murky world of the CIA.

Larry Ellis bares a striking resemblance to a dead criminal whose smuggling gang's activities threaten the economy of the western world so the CIA recruit him to take on the dead man's identity to infiltrate the gang

The above is the premise for HOUSE OF SECRETS . It's maybe not a groundbreaking idea but it's a solid one similar to WHITE HEAT which I had the pleasure of seeing again a few days previously . With both movies you know where the story is going and that it's only a matter of time before the undercover agent gets found out . But where as in WHITE HEAT the audience are kept on the edge of their seats by the intelligent script HOUSE OF SECRETS is rather uninvolving and seems somewhat underdeveloped , a case in point is when Larry is asked to meet " The girl " . He doesn't know which girl the gang are talking about , so instead of the gang members physically taking him to meet the girl thereby blowing his cover due to his ignorance Larry goes to meet his CIA contact to ask what girl the gang are referring to . Things like this means the script misses the opportunity to create nail biting tension and makes the movie rather uninvolving

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

Michael Craig would have been a terrific James Bond. I don't know if he was ever screen tested. He had the look and physical abilities. The story has more twists than a mountain road and a climax right out of a Bond film. Arnall and Bates brought eye candy and acting skills. The fight scenes were brutal and more realistic than the usual phoney slugfest.

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.