Battaglie di spie

The British military brass led by Harry Andrews choose one of their own junior officers played by Bradford Dillman to go on a mission into Nazi-occupied France based on a psychological profile that he will crack under torture and reveal the false information they wish to have the Germans believe about the imminent D-Day invasion. Dillman is chosen for the mission on the recommendation of Suzy Parker, who plays Andrews administrative assistant. As a psychological drama Circle of Deception works fairly well. Parker is especially good at playing both ends, working to implement Andrews plan but also falling for Dillman. Dillman is good once he gets captured by the Germans, who torture him convincingly. After he breaks, Dillman's character has to live with himself, still believing that he let down the war effort by divulging true information.

Years ago, I read "Op JB" by Christopher Creighton. It was published in 1996 and was supposedly true, telling of secret missions during WW2 carried out by the author. The veracity of the book is still debated.

I must admit I wasn't sure what to believe until I came to the part where the author claimed he was used by M-Section to persuade the Germans that the Allied invasion of Europe would focus on the Pas de Calais rather than Normandy. His superiors betrayed his identity as a British agent to the SS so that under torture he would confirm the story, which he thought to be true. He was then rescued by M-section and returned to Britain.

That's when I thought, "I know this story". It was the plot of "Circle of Deception" starring Bradford Dillman, which I had seen in the 1960's. My belief in the book lessened considerably after I made that connection.

"Circle of Deception" was a forerunner of the more cynical, anti-hero films about WW2 that hit with a vengeance in the 1960's. Then WW2 movies often became surrogates for the Vietnam War, which didn't get its own movies until it was over.

"Circle of Deception" didn't have massive stars. Bradford Dillman seemed a modern sort of actor mainly from television. His character, Captain Paul Raine, is chosen for the mission because it is believed he will crack under torture and give the Nazis the misinformation the British want them to have. Whatever baggage Dillman carried in 1960 is long gone; now he is convincing as the operative who struggles to overcome his fears.

Harry Andrews as Captain Rawson the intelligence chief who devised the mission is perfect. Head of Section roles were an Andrews' specialty.

Suzy Parker played Lucy Bowen, Rawson's assistant who becomes romantically involved with Raine. Suzy had the look of those beautiful women that artists painted for the glossy magazine illustrations of the day; the camera loved her.

The interrogation scenes gave the film an edge, especially Robert Stephens as the urbane German intelligence officer who played good cop against the vicious Gestapo guys. Only the prison escape at the end smacked of standard movie heroics.

However, even after 50 years, this well-made film is still a bit of a downer with its rather ruthless sacrifice of a British agent for the greater good.

When 20th Century Fox entered TV in the 1950s, one of the programs was an hour-long anthology series. This series took many Fox classics (THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, HOUSE OF STRANGERS, MIRACLE ON 34th STREET, THE LATE GEORGE APLEY, YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, et al) and reduced them to less-than-an-hour. One of the entries in that series was titled DECEPTION, and it starred Linda Darnell and Trevor Howard; it was about a woman intelligence officer in charge of a complicated spy mission: she has to pick a man who will turn out to be a coward, so that he can be given false information which he will divulge (under torture) to the Nazis. Unless i'm very much mistaken, this is one instance when the TV episode was embellished into a feature film (made in 1961). The movie provides a lot more exposition, but the story is the same, including the female intelligence officer seeking out the man after the war. This film stars Suzy Parker as the intelligence agent, and Bradford Dillman as the man; soon after this movie, they would marry and she would retire from acting. Though they don't have the same depth as Darnell (an exceptional performance) and Howard, Parker and Dillman are nevertheless quite a glamorous couple (as they were in real life).

(Though the film is well-done, the TV show, in this instance, packed more of a punch, and the performances of Linda Darnell and Trevor Howard were exceptional.)

Future Mr and Mrs Bradford Dillman star in this lukewarm WW2 drama in which Dillman is enlisted by subterfuge to undertake a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Cracks appear in the plan when Parker develops feelings for the easygoing (and gullible) American soldier bringing her loyalty into question, her superior Andrews sympathetic to the ethical issues but more interested in the national interests.

Strong cast isn't given a lot of meaningful material to work with, a melodramatic, romantic B war movie in which the best role is played by Stephens as a ruthless German officer unable to break his prisoner despite increasingly brutal methods of interrogation.

Australian audiences might also be interested to see a young Norman Coburn (Mr Fisher from 'Home & Away') playing one of the innocuous British soldiers playfully ribbing Dillman at the RAF base early in the picture.

Not bad in any sense, mostly just mediocre with both the leads miscast in roles to which their apparent refinement doesn't seem well suited (Parker is perhaps too elegant to play a bland WAAF whilst Dillman too genial/ intellectual for such a dirty mission despite the mischaracterisation being central to the plot), although it is endearing to see the film which ultimately forged their lifelong union which lasted forty years.

"A Circle of Deception" is an unusual and good film...though I don't heartily recommend you see it. This is because the story has a portion where the lead is tortured. It's not as vivid and brutal as the Nazis would have been...but it's still darned unpleasant.

Captain Paul Raine (Bradford Dillman) has been selected for a spy mission behind enemy lines during WWII. They say it's because he speaks French...but it's really because they think he'll crack under pressure and they arrange for his mission to fail. Why? Because they've fed him false information and hope to convince the Nazis of this lie. However, they never tell Raine...and a woman who has fallen for him knows the truth but she's ordered not to tell. What's next? Well, he's captured and tortured....but what's next might just come as a surprise to everyone.

The acting is good, the film well made. I have no real complaints other than the story makes for unpleasant viewing...and the very end, the final scene, didn't seem very realistic to me.