Secret People (film)

In 1930, Maria Brentano and her younger sister Nora flee to London as their father is about to be executed by his country's dictator. Seven years later, Maria unexpectedly meets Louis, her childhood sweetheart, who is engaged in a plot to assassinate the dictator. Maria is persuaded to play an active part in the plan, but it all goes horribly wrong when the bomb they plant kills an innocent waitress, causing Maria much distress. ==Cast==

Although finished before August 1951 (the film was screened by the BBFC censors on 7 August 1951), it did not premiere at The Odeon Leicester Square in London until 8 February 1952. ==Reception==

Critical The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Secret People is considerably more than a political melodrama; it is concerned with the moral issues involved in the use of violence to resist violence, with the corrupting effects of such methods ... and, especially, with personal relationships – Maria's disturbed and unhappy love for Louis and her protective devotion to her sister. The controlled, highly distinctive narrative style focuses and develops these relationships and, notably in the sustained passage from Louis' persuasion of Maria to her tortured and desperate visit to Scotland Yard, the full weight of the theme emerges with clarity and force. ... The intellectual level of the film, one feels, should be more equal to the emotional. ... The faults of Secret People are obvious enough; they are, however, subsidiary. The tension and power of the film make it one of the most remarkable British productions for some time." Kine Weekly wrote: "The picture, a backward glance to the days of a phoney peace when apparently London was a hotbed of infrigue, not only fails adequately to label its leading characters, played with as much conviction as their accents permit by Valentina Cortesa and Serge Reggiani, but overloads its dishevelled, not to say outmoded, plot with detail. The ballet sequences are more decorative than relevant and the trip to Paris is a luxury rather than a necessity. Drenched with local colour, it seldom touches the heart nor creates real suspense." The reviewer for The Times found Secret People to be "a confused, inarticulate, disappointing film, neither as imaginative nor as intellectually exciting as it should be." George Perry wrote in Forever Ealing that "...there is much of interest in the Ealing film, such as the moral dilemma of those who have to resort to force to overcome force." He also praised "a sensitive performance by Valentina Cortesa, ... a substantial role for Audrey Hepburn", and felt that the film had been misinterpreted and "was in some respects ahead of its time." Box office The film was a box office flop. ==References==