The Traitor

This is a sinister post-war drama with a terrible ring of sadness and tragedy about it, as the murderer is himself unaware of the fact that there is no ground for his motive. It's a tragedy of treason, and no one understands anything about it until it's too late.

This is therefore very much a film of mysterious undercurrents, understatements and hidden meanings, a film "written between the lines". It's easy to dismiss it for its failure to convey it's true meaning, but you do it wrong if you don't give it a lot of afterthought.

The surviving members of an underground resistance group against the Nazis meet annually in an old mansion outside London to commemorate their leader who was shot on that day by the Nazis. It appears that someone in the group had betrayed him. The new leader colonel Price, played by Donald Wolfit in a typical role of his, announces his decision to find out who the traitor was among them at their new meeting, and no one is allowed to leave the place until the issue is settled. An agent is on his way from Berlin to reveal the name. He never reaches them alive, and two American intelligence officers come importuning at their meeting to make matters worse and more complicated.

Donald Wolfit is a sure name to make any film he participates in a most memorable event. Christopher Lee as the doctor attracts all suspicion from the audience by his covert attitude as of a man who knew too much. Anton Diffring as the pianist contributes with the mood by his music, which he wants to call "Prelude to Death" which is altered to "Prelude without a name" by those who want to live. It's very reminiscent and almost a paraphrase of the Warsaw Concerto, it certainly brings the same atmosphere but is less efficient as music, while the drama story here is much more interesting and goes deeper. It's the difference between before the war and after.

At the same time it's a very intriguing murder thriller on the level with Agatha Christie, but here everything is logic and natural, it's a matter of inevitable tragedy of fate and not at all an artificial intrigue, like commonly with Agatha Christie.

Artime underground friends meet up in an old house in England to work out which one of them betrayed their keader during the war, resulting in his execution.

Solid chamber piece with a good British 50s cast which slowly morphs into an Agatha Christie type whodunnit. OK.

THE TRAITOR is nothing more than one of those 'old dark house' type mystery films dressed up as something else. There's a definite Agatha Christie vibe going on here (think TEN LITTLE INDIANS) as a group of characters meet up in a sprawling mansion to discover which of their number is a secret Nazi traitor intent on claiming the lives of the rest of the group.

The story has a WW2 background with the assembled men being Germans who are former members of a resistance group fighting against the Nazis. One of their number hangs himself and the men believe a traitor forced him to do the deed; the rest of the running time follows a classic whodunit mould with Robert Bray the investigating hero.

THE TRAITOR suffers from a slow and stodgy first half where it takes an age for the men to even be informed that there's a traitor in their midst. Still, it does pick up towards the end and particularly at the climax, and there's a solid cast to keep you watching. Donald Wolfit (BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE) is the one-armed lead, and he's supported by the familiar faces of Christopher Lee and Anton Diffring. Not a classic, more of a curiosity piece for fans of this era.

This is a wonderful example of post-war British thrillers at their very best. Members of a French Resistance unit meet each year in England on the anniversary of their leaders death at the hands of a traitor in their midst. When they learn that the identity of the person responsible for this treacherous act is about to become known he or she decides to prevent their secret from being revealed. The ensemble cast are all ideal for their roles, Anton Diffring stands out as a concert pianist instead of his usual role as a nasty Nazi. He really could play the piano well, although I don't think he played the score in this film. It is difficult to guess who the murderer is, I'm still not sure how the investigating military officer comes to his conclusion, but I have watched this film dozens of times and never tire of going along for the ride! It is good to see Christopher Lee also playing a role other than his well-known vampire ones, along with many other well-known European faces, especially Jane Griffiths. This film is impossible to find on video or DVD so if you have the chance to see it don't let the opportunity pass you by!

1957's "The Traitor" centers on a small band of resistance fighters whose leader was murdered by the Nazis after being betrayed by one of their members. Every year since the war's end, they all gather together in the English country home of Colonel Charles Price (Donald Wolfit), except that this time, the Colonel expects a visit from one Theodore Dehmel (Colin Croft), who will be flying in from Berlin, having discovered the traitor's identity. As had been the case during wartime, Price intends to dispense justice himself without any police involvement, but Dehmer arrives and promptly expires with a knife in his back, uttering the mysterious words, 'There's been a mistake.' Once the characters are introduced in the opening reel, the scene never leaves the Colonel's home, making for a claustrophobic screenplay that benefits hugely from its exceptional cast. As another commentator noted, the solution is ingenious, but without any concrete evidence that points to the guilty party. Most of the group are established as being German, except for the Swiss Alfred Baum (Frederick Schiller) and the Polish Joseph Brezina (Anton Diffring), the latter a brilliant concert pianist, allowing Diffring to display a more sympathetic side to his normally villainous countenance. The most notable supporting player is Christopher Lee, still a few months before his star making turn in Hammer's "The Curse of Frankenstein," and sporting a flawless German accent as Doctor Neumann, whose presence no doubt inspired the American distributor to change the generic British title from "The Traitor" to "The Accursed," giving it more of a horror slant. Seldom seen since the old days of black and white television, its obscurity seems destined to continue.