House of Secrets (1956 film)

House of Secrets
UK theatrical poster
Directed by	Guy Green
Written by	Robert Buckner Bryan Forbes
Based on	novel Storm Over Paris by Sterling Noel
Produced by	Vivian Cox Julian Wintle
Starring	Michael Craig Anton Diffring Gérard Oury
Cinematography	Harry Waxman
Edited by	Sidney Hayers
Music by	Hubert Clifford
Production company	Rank Films
Distributed by	Rank Film Distributors
Release date	23 October 1956 (1956-10-23) (UK)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

House of Secrets, also known as Triple Deception, is a 1956 British crime thriller film directed by Guy Green and starring Michael Craig, Anton Diffring and Gérard Oury. It was wrirtten by Robert Buckner andBryan Forbes 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 The plane he is travelling on with the money (which has been replaced by plain paper) is rigged to explode, but he bales out in time.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
• Anton Diffring as Anton Lauderbach
• Gérard Oury as Julius Pindar
• Brenda De Banzie as Madame Isabella Ballu
• Geoffrey Keen as Colonel Burleigh, CIA
• David Kossoff as Henryk van de Heide, CIA
• Barbara Bates as Judy Anderson
• Alan Tilvern as Brandelli
• Julia Arnall as Diane Gilbert
• Gordon Tanner as Curtice
• Eugene Deckers as Vidal
• Eric Pohlmann as Gratz
• Jean Driant as Gratz's assistant (uncredited)
• Carl Jaffe as Walter Dorffman

Production

It was shot in Technicolor and VistaVision at Pinewood Studios near London and on location in Paris and Marseille The film's sets were designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky, and the costumes by Julie Harris.

Michael Craig called his part "a sort of forerunner to the James Bond type of movie" which "in spite of all our best efforts it ended up being fairly boring." He was paid £30 a week.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin 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. 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."

External links

• House of Secrets at IMDb
• House of Secrets at the TCM Movie Database