''House of Secrets'', also known as ''Triple Deception,'' is a 1956 British

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by Guy Green and starring Michael Craig,

Anton Diffring Anton Diffring (born Alfred Pollack; 20 October 1916 – 19 May 1989) was a German actor. He had an extensive film and television career in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1980s, latterly appearing in international films. Primarily a c ...

and

Gérard Oury Gérard Oury (; born Max-Gérard Houry Tannenbaum; 29 April 1919 – 20 July 2006) was a French film director, actor and writer. Life and career Max-Gérard Houry-Tannenbaum was the only son of Serge Tannenbaum, a violinist of Russian-Jewish or ...

. It was written by

Robert Buckner Robert Buckner (May 28, 1906 – August 18, 1989) was an American film screenwriter, producer and short story writer. Biography Buckner studied at the University of Virginia and the University of Edinburgh. He began his professional writing car ...

and

Bryan Forbes Bryan Forbes Order of the British Empire, CBE (; born John Theobald Clarke; 22 July 1926 – 8 May 2013) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man"Falk Q. . BAFTA. 17 October 2 ...

based on the 1955 novel ''Storm Over Paris'' by Sterling Noel.

Plot

Naval officer Larry Ellis bears a striking resemblance to counterfeiter Steve Chancellor and is mistakenly arrested in his place. Chancellor is killed in a car crash and Ellis goes undercover to impersonate the dead man, to lead the police to his gang who plan to inundate the UK with huge amounts of forged bank notes. Ellis devises a plan for smuggling the counterfeit notes into England, but his impersonation is rumbled. The plane he is travelling on with the money (which has been replaced by plain paper) is rigged to explode, but he bales out in time.

Cast

* Michael Craig as Larry Ellis / Steve Chancellor *

as Anton Lauderbach *

as Julius Pindar * Brenda De Banzie as Madame Isabella Ballu *

Geoffrey Keen Geoffrey Keen (21 August 1916 – 3 November 2005) was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many films. He is well known for playing British Defence Minister Sir Frederick Gray in the ''James Bond'' films. Biography Early li ...

as Colonel Burleigh, CIA *

David Kossoff David Kossoff (24 November 1919 – 23 March 2005) was a British actor. In 1954 he won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for his appearance as Geza Szobek in '' The Young Lovers''. He played Alf Larkin in TV sit ...

as Henryk van de Heide, CIA *

Barbara Bates Barbara Jane Bates (August 6, 1925 – March 18, 1969) was an American singer and actress, best known for her portrayal of Phoebe in the 1950 drama film ''All About Eve'' and as Katy Morgan on '' It's a Great Life'' (1954–1956). Early life ...

as Judy Anderson *

Alan Tilvern Alan Tilvern (5 November 1918 – 17 December 2003) was an English actor. He was known for usually playing "tough-guy" roles. Life Tilvern was born 5 November 1918 in Whitechapel, in the East End of London, to Lithuanian-Jewish parents, who ...

as Brandelli *

Julia Arnall Julia Arnall (21 November 1928 – 8 November 2018) was a German-born British-based actress. Personal life Born Julia Ilse Hendrike Irmgard von Stein Liebenstein zu Bachfeld in 1928 in Munich, she spent her childhood in Berlin, where her fath ...

as Diane Gilbert *

Gordon Tanner Gordon Tanner (July 17, 1918–August 3, 1983) was a Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of thes ...

as Curtice *

Eugene Deckers Eugene Francis Deckers (22 October 1917, in Antwerp – 1977, in Paris, France) was a Belgium, Belgian actor. Career After establishing himself on the British stage, Deckers made his first English language film appearance in 1946. Formerly a ...

as Vidal *

Eric Pohlmann Eric Pohlmann (; born Erich Pollak; 18 July 1913 – 25 July 1979) was an Austrian theatre, film and television character actor who worked mostly in the United Kingdom. He is known for voicing Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the primary antagonist of t ...

as Gratz *

Jean Driant Jean-Charles Driant (1922–1989) was a French-born character actor remembered for numerous supporting roles in British film and TV. Life He was born in Paris, France on 12 July 1922. He came to England in or before 1947. In the 1970s he was ...

as Gratz's assistant (uncredited) *

Carl Jaffe Carl Jaffe (21 March 1902 – 12 April 1974) was a German actor. Jaffe trained on the stage in his native Hamburg, Kassel and Wiesbaden before moving to Berlin, where his career began to develop. In 1933 Jaffe changed his stage name to Fran ...

as Walter Dorffman

Production

The movie was one of several thrillers made by Rank that year. It was shot in

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

and

VistaVision VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format that was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954. Paramount did not use anamorphic processes such as CinemaScope but refined the ...

Pinewood Studios Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London. The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to t ...

near

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and on location in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

Filming took eight weeks, starting April 1956, half on location, half at Pinewood. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Alex Vetchinsky Alex Vetchinsky ( Alec Hyman Vetchinsky; 9 November 1904 – 4 March 1980) was a BAFTA nominated British film art director and production designer. He worked on more than a hundred productions during a career that lasted between 1928 and 1974. Ve ...

, and the costumes by

Julie Harris Julia Ann Harris (December 2, 1925August 24, 2013) was an American actress. Renowned for her classical and contemporary roles, she earned numerous accolades including five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play, three Emmy Awards, and a Grammy ...

. Michael Craig had appeared in ''Passage Home'', ''Yield to the Night'' and ''Eyewitness'' and was being built into a star by the Rank Organisation - this was his first leading role. He called his role "a huge part, with various leading ladies, love scenes and fights, and all that idiot stuff." In his memoirs, Craig called the film "a sort of forerunner to the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

type of movie" which "in spite of all our best efforts it ended up being fairly boring." He was paid £30 a week. Julia Arnall had just appeared in ''Lost'' for Rank and Barbara Bates had come in from Hollywood.

Critical reception

The ''Daily Telegraph'' said it was "good for some thrills". ''The Guardian'' called it "the best British thriller of the more extrovert sort for many a month." ''Variety'' said "there are plenty of thrills and mounting tension In this workmanlike adaptation... Like most stories taken from books, the plot tends to become over-involved... Exciting entertainment that nears, but never bridges the borderline of credulity." ''

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' wrote: "A somewhat juvenile spy story with attractive and well chosen Parisian backgrounds. The police, wise and mannerly, and the crooks, suave and heavily accented, give the impression of having been faithfully transcribed from the pages of ''The Skipper'' and ''

Rover Rover may refer to: People Name * Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian * Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer * Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist Stage name * Rover (musician), French singer-songw ...

''. The acting, particularly of the foreigners, is also solidly traditional; the photography and art direction, on the other hand, are often distinctly above average." In ''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'' David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Thick-ear '' Boys' Own''-style thriller with limited acting but good fight scenes and photography." ''The

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

Guide to Films'' gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "A box-office sleeper in its day, this patchy thriller will probably seem threadbare to modern audiences, but director Guy Green uses Paris locations well and keeps the story ticking along. Groomed by Rank as the successor to Dirk Bogarde, Michael Craig never quite lived up to the hype. However, as a naval officer impersonating his counterfeiting lookalike, he holds his own."

References

External links

* * {{Guy Green 1956 films 1956 crime films British crime thriller films 1950s crime thriller films 1950s English-language films Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films directed by Guy Green Films set in France Films shot in France 1950s British films Films based on American novels English-language crime thriller films VistaVision films