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MovieMail's Review
The rediscovery of Thorold Dickinson continues with the release of the last film he made in England, Secret People, which is a complex espionage thriller with echoes of Hitchcock.
Set in the 1930s, it concerns Maria and Nora, two refugees from a nameless European country suffering under a cruel dictator, General Galbern. They're taken in by their father's closest friend, a London cafe owner, and start a new life as British citizens. But a chance meeting with Maria's former lover in Paris finds them embroiled in a plot to assassinate Galbern.
Though it was reportedly the victim of studio interference, the film remains a surprisingly rich and daring study of the politics of violence, implicitly criticising both the upper class sympathy with Nazism and the drastic measures taken by revolutionaries (something that got it into trouble with the British Communist party). It also boasts the expressionistic flourishes for which Dickinson is noted, including a breathtaking, split-second transition from pub back room to sophisticated garden party, all achieved in one shot.
The impressive international cast features an adorable Audrey Hepburn in her first major film role.
Suspenseful crime drama set in the 1930s and starring Valentina Cortese and a young Audrey Hepburn. Maria Brentano and her younger sister Nora flee to London after their political activist father is murdered by a European dictator. Several years later, while on a weekend trip to Paris, they unexpectedly run into Maria's former lover Louis (Serge Reggiani), who is now plotting the assassination of the dictator. Maria and Nora subsequently become involved in his plan - with tragic consequences.
