The Third Secret

Stephen Boyd is a newscaster in London, with a gloomy view of his profession and audience. When his psychiatrist kills himself, he grows angry; if his doctor killed himself, how can he survive? Then the psychiatrist's daughter, Pamela Franklin, comes to him, saying that he was not a suicide. He was a murder victim. Boyd investigates the other patients and comes to suspect he is the murderer. It's an interestingly written movie about mental illness, with some stellar talent in the supporting roles: Jack Hawkins, Richard Attenborough, Diane Cilento and a screen premiere by Judy Dench. Miss Franklin is superb. The problem is that, despite some beautiful camera work by Douglas Slocombe, there's a lot of talk, too much for a movie, and Stephen Boyd is the lead: a very handsome, very hard-working actor who has no real screen presence and who plays the low-affect depressive to a tee. Director Charles Crichton tries his hardest, but it's too slow and inert to be very interesting.

Most people think Dame Judi's film career began with 'A Room with a View', but she actually made a handful of extremely interesting black & white dramas back in the sixties commencing with this extremely unusual film which now looks charmingly dated both in it's extraordinary take on mental illness as a furtive disgrace (complete with a heavily Freudian dream sequence) and it's immaculate black & white location photography of London by Douglas Slocombe; it's mood further enhanced by a haunting score by Richard Arnell.

Even though this film has a terrific cast and excellent cinematography it just cannot overcome a talky and plodding screenplay which make it difficult to keep the viewers attention. Richard Attenborough rather resembles his character of murderer Reginald Christie.

I first saw this as a kid, in 1970, on tv, and thought the nightmare sequence at Diane Cilento's home to be one of the scariest scenes I'd ever seen on film. After 29 years the impact is somewhat diluted, but overall the film holds together pretty well. Take a look at the extraordinary Douglas Slocombe panavision cinematography, the driven performances of Franklin and Boyd - an underrated actor if there ever was one - the striking set pieces on the Thames riverbank. It should be restored and re-issued on a VERY big screen. Scorsese, where art thou?

Charles Crichron had already succeeded in the difficult task of having an adult and a child perform together :"the hunting" was one of the most moving British movies of the fifties as well as Dirk Bogarde's first important role . The Stephen -Messala-Boyd/Pamela Franklin pairing may seem strange first but this girl was really a wiz kid for she had already proved it in such works as Clayton's "the innocents" and "our mother's house" .Some kind of Jodie Foster of the sixties,she didn't make the career she deserved. A shrink has been murdered and his patients are all suspects;Boyd portrays one of them,investigating the others 'life and meeting his daughter (Franklin) ,a disturbed girl who writes strange lines on a wall and who seems to know things better left unsaid.Many scenes take place by the sea on a lugubrious beach children forgot a long time ago. Intriguing.

I was the edge of my seat! A suspenseful Who Done It with compelling performances by Pamela Franklin and Stephen Boyd in challengingly complex roles. The plot is fairly progressive for its time - the topic of mental illness still somewhat taboo in our society. I read somewhere that Stephen Boyd was so taken with the story and the character, he took a sizeable pay cut to play the role of Alex. Versatile actor that he was, he seemed to most enjoy those demanding and unusual character roles with substance and depth that really challenge an actor and in which he performed so notably well. And Pamela Franklin, at the age of 14, is an incredible actress taking on a role that veterans would not have managed nearly as well. Great story - great film - great acting!