Open Secret

1948 saw two major studio films dealing with anti-Semitism, "Gentleman's Agreement," which garnered three Oscars, and the noir drama, "Crossfire." The former dealt with the disguised, serpentine social prejudice of the upper class while the raw bigotry that leads too often to violence was the subject of the latter movie.

Exploring the huge selection of $4.99 "B" (and worse) DVD selection at a Manhattan store today I discovered 1948's "Open Secret," a meant-to-be second feature capitalizing on, I'm sure, "Crossfire."

With only the prolific and now venerable John Ireland as a recognizable star, a very decent cast directed by John Reinhardt brought a fairly - for the times - offbeat story to the screen with good performances.

Ireland plays Paul Lester, just married to the quite pretty Nancy-Jane Randolph, a comely young actress who enjoyed a brief cinema semi-ascendancy before giving up acting for the life of a trans-Atlantic socialite. The newlyweds are invited to stay with Paul's army pal who has to run an errand, which turns out to be his last, before the couple arrives. They settle in, awaiting the buddy's return.

It quickly develops that a set of photographs taken by the now missing friend may blow the cover of a small gaggle of gross bigots who rail against the newly arrived "foreigners" in the neighborhood. Men, wives and even the little kids are inculcated with hatred for people who, we're told, should go and live with their "own kind." To make sure no one misses what the Neighborhood Hood Watch means, the "foreigners" have Jewish names and, insuring viewers get the point, they're referred to as "kikes," a word rarely then found in scripts.

Despite an intrusive and boring score that never lets up, there's real drama here as the crypto-Nazis desperately seek the photos and negatives that even these morons understand may spell their undoing. Paul and Nancy are repeatedly forced by the script to assert their tolerance for all minorities. Thankfully the repetition doesn't detract from the unfolding story as Paul gets closer to the secrets, Nancy drifts towards danger, a good detective sergeant (reminiscent of Robert Ryan in "Crossfire") tries to uproot hate and a beleaguered Jewish storekeeper has a chance to show his mettle.

Also very unusual is a portrayal of spouse abuse - wife battering - and its soul-deadening effect that was way ahead of its time.

With a fairly low budget and some pretty cheap sets, this "B" feature garners a "B+" as well as a place in the history of film for contributing to the unmasking of anti-Semitism in postwar America.

7/10

John Ireland and Jane Randolph star in "Open Secret" from 1948, featuring Sheldon Leonard and Arthur O'Connell.

Nancy and Paul Lester (Randolph and Ireland) arrive in town and call an old friend of Paul's, Ed (Charles Waldron Jr.) who invites them to stay in his apartment, as hotel rooms are scarce. However, he has to go out, so the landlady lets them in.

They never do see Ed - he seems to have vanished. They find some White Supremacist pamphlets in his apartment. When Paul wants to have some of his photos developed, he finds some rolls of film in a drawer and decides to get them printed for Ed. He goes to a film developer, Strauss. They meet a woman on the street who says she never goes there, "you know why."

Turns out the town is rabid with anti-Semites, who have a secret grouup that kills Jews. Ed, it seems, was investigating them.

This is a low-budget answer to "Crossfire" and "Gentlemens Agreement," but it had a sinister undercurrent and unpleasant tone throughout. You really wanted this newly married couple to leave town.

I unfortunately saw a very poor print of this that had a lot of dark scenes that were hard to see. However, it was well-directed and the acting was good.

Amazing to think we still have to deal with this in the U. S. today.

An offbeat thriller,which is also a plea for tolerance and a strong indictment of ordinary anti -Semitism , shortly after WW2 (two of the characters ,including the principal ,are former army pals ; the prologue, which ends with an ominous word (guilty) , the shirt, the booklets John Ireland finds in the drawer ("he may use them to wrap up his rubbish") , and a menace hanging in the air , these criminal people always called "they" , all this makes a fine film noir.

1947 saw the debut of the film "Gentleman's Agreement" in which Gregory Peck pretended to be Jewish in order to feel what it's like to be a Jew in America. Naturally, he experiences some discrimination but it's mostly very proper ('nice' anti-Semitism) and the leading man quite handsome. It was NOT particularly gritty and I always thought the film was amazingly tame...and a bit overdone. Here, a year later, a low-budget studio had decided to do a film like "Gentleman's Agreement"--but with more normal looking folks (no handsome Peck or John Garfield here) and in a more working-class neighborhood. And, in addition, the level of hate was ratcheted up...a lot. In fact, in this sick little town, a local hidden hate group has gone so far as kill Jews! John Ireland infiltrates this group of sickies and the film lacks the pretty polish but also seems a bit more gutsy and violent. Oddly, despite the publicity for the earlier film and critical acclaim, I prefer "Open Secret" as it is much more exciting and more like a variation on film noir. A great film? No...but it certainly is interesting and the problems don't seem so mundane as those in the Gregory Peck film. As a result, it shows a seedier and uglier side to ethnic hatred.

The late 1940s saw a brief spate of message movies dealing with anti-semitism, most notably the fantastic film noir thriller CROSSFIRE and the more famous but somewhat tepid GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT (both 1947). OPEN SECRET, from 1948, shares more in common with CROSSFIRE given its noir trappings and thriller elements. John Ireland plays ex-GI Paul Lester who, along with his new wife Nancy (the very alluring Jane Randolph) arrive in town with the hopes of visiting Paul's old army buddy, Ed Stevens. When Ed turns up missing, Paul and Nancy are tossed into the middle of a dark mystery involving a neighborhood hate group whose targets are ethnic immigrant residents and business owners. Chief among them is Harry Strauss (George Tyne) a Jewish camera shop owner who figures prominently in the search for Ed who, it turns out, has been hunted down and killed by the hate-mongers because of incriminating photographs involving a previous killing that were in his possession. The direction (by John Reinhardt) of the film is considerably more lively than most ultra-low budget thrillers and the issues it brings up are actually on the level of those tackled in CROSSFIRE. Much of the dialog is quite intelligent and pungently written, dealing with delicate issues in a frank, straightforward way. Other notably interesting people in the cast are Roman Bohnen (the well-respected left-wing blacklisted actor) as an alcoholic wife-beater and member of the hate group, Sheldon Leonard (a veteran of tons of "B" noirs) as a sympathetic cop and, in a background bit part, King Donovan (from Don Siegel's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"). OPEN SECRET has recently been released in a budget-priced DVD and I strongly urge fans of this hybrid noir genre to check it out.