Mon 21 Jul 2008
Movie Review – THE SECRET WAYS (1961).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Suspense & espionage films[10] Comments
THE SECRET WAYS. Universal Pictures, 1961. Richard Widmark, Sonja Ziemann, Charles Régnier, Walter Rilla, Senta Berger, Stefan Schnabel, Hubert von Meyerinck. Based on the novel The Last Frontier by Alastair MacLean (published in the US as The Secret Ways). Screenwriter: Jean Hazlewood (Mrs. Richard Widmark). Producer: Richard Widmark. Director: Phil Karlson.
One note about the credits before I begin the review itself. Unhappy with the way things were going, Widmark is said to have fired Karlson and directed the last few weeks of filming himself. In one sense this may have been a good idea, since Karlson later directed Dean Martin in two of the Matt Helm movies. It was his idea to go in that direction even earlier with The Secret Ways, but apparently Widmark put his foot down and said no.
On the other hand, whichever hand was at the helm, this is not a very good movie, and in some ways it is downright bad. I have not read Alastair MacLean’s novel, but it had to have been better than the filmed version of it. If not, I submit to you that the novel would never have been published – and therefore no movie, and this review is about to disappear itself.
It isn’t the acting – top notches should be awarded to everyone involved all the way around, starting with Widmark himself as Michael Reynolds, who’s neither a spy nor an espionage agent, but only a slightly disreputable gent forced by gambling debts to take on a task by Swiss banker Hermann Sheffler (von Meyerinck). The job? Only to rescue a charismatic political figure named Jansci (Walter Rilla) from behind the Iron Curtain.
Posing as a journalist, Reynolds’ only lead is Jancsi’s daughter Julia (Sonja Ziemann) who has recently survived an escape attempt herself. One of the sources Reynolds uses to find Julia, by the way, is Elsa (Santa Berger), the latter an actress who proves that beautiful women can also act, Hollywood preconceptions to the contrary, which explains why most of her films were not made in this country.
The only problem is, Julia wants to go with Reynolds back into Hungary, and Jansci himself does not want to leave. (It takes a lot of effort to reach him and eventually convince him.)
The acting, as I said, is of high caliber, the outdoor shots (Vienna, I believe) are as authentic as they could be, and so what goes wrong? The story. Individual scenes are perfectly done. They just don’t combine together in any coherent way you can think of. Things happen, you (the viewer) wait for an explanation, and the explanation never comes.
Reynolds get beaten up early on – so, OK, his cover is blown. He’s rescued by Elsa – and if you are male, how would you like to wake up in the morning being nuzzled by Santa Berger after being rescued by her the evening before? But why? To what purpose? Why does she have the address for Julia that he needs? Why does she give it to him? How did she happen to meet him earlier in the restaurant in the first place?
Yeah, I know. Motivations are murky in all the good spy movies, but if MacLean’s novel was the basis for this movie, you get the idea that it far too complicated for them, and they stripped away all of the non-essentials and simply went with what was left.
Later on, Reynolds and Jansci have been caught, drugged, beaten up by the Communist authorities, and in as sad shape as they’re in, they … Or, as they say in the vernacular, aw, come on.
I see that I haven’t mentioned Sonja Ziemann. Slim and brunette, and her character naturally attracted to Reynolds in spite of a bad start between them, she’s quite a beauty, with a long career in the German film industry, which explains why I hadn’t heard of her before. Perhaps you have.
I’ll close by adding some screen shots here at the end. I may have gotten into the bad habit of trying to squeeze too many of them into the reviews themselves, but in this case, they’re too good to not use them at all.
(1) Reynolds being guided by Elsa to her apartment after getting beaten up:
(2) Reynolds with Julia as they begin to realize what they are up against:
(3) Reynolds and Jansci in their interrogation room:
(4) On their way to the airport and safety!
July 21st, 2008 at 2:04 am
The Matt Helm years weren’t Phil Karlson’s best. Of that, there is no doubt. But he did direct several strong films in the 1950s, like KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL. His last movie, a mean small town thriller called FRAMED, just came out on DVD.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:13 am
You’re right, Phil Karlson has a long, solid resume as a director of noir and noir-like films. I’d certainly place THE SECRET WAYS in the latter category, if not the first. That long sequence of screen shots I came up with ought to be a pretty convincing argument for that.
I read a review of FRAMED in the New York Times, but so far I haven’t found an outlet that actually has it and can sell it to me.
Amazon has it only in VHS, for example; other than that, all that comes up for “FRAMED” on DVD are movies with Rob Lowe, Timothy Dalton, and Jeff Goldblum.
That’s three different movies, not all in one!
As for the Matt Helm movies, I’ve actually been meaning to watch one or two of them, just to see if they’re as bad as everyone says they are — including me!
Best
Steve
July 21st, 2008 at 9:43 am
The Matt Helm movies are to Donald Hamilton as Whoopi Goldberg’s Burglar is to Lawrence Block, so you may want to fortify yourself with much alcohol before watching. Picture the cheesiest parts of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with deeper (though never deep enough) cleavage.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:22 am
Re: Whoopi Goldberg as Bernie. We’re talking the ultimate in Extreme Makeover’s here, aren’t we?
— Steve
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:35 am
This is a very interesting post.
Phil Karlson is a major filmmaker – especially for the movies he made in the 1950’s.
I have barely heard of The Secret Ways. It seems to be a forgotten film, rarely shown or written about.
The NYT article on Framed is by Dave Kehr, one of the world’s leading film critics. I have not seen Framed yet, either.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:45 am
After I watch a movie, I often classify it to myself as one I will watch again, or one that I won’t.
I’d put this one in the second category, but your comment along with Vince’s about Phil Karlson’s long list of credits in making noir movies have done a lot to change my mind.
I thought the movie was awfully uneven the first time, in terms of both the plot and the overall tenor of the film. Maybe if I watch it again, I can pick up on some things I thought I missed.
— Steve
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
The standard critical line about Karlson is that his 1940’s films are poor, his 1950’s films are good, and then his 1960’s films are stinkers again. See the chapter on Karlson in Andrew Sarris’ “The American Cinema” (the best book ever written on classical Hollywood).
“The Secret Ways” (1961) is over the 1960 line. And thus allegedly no darn good. (I haven’t seen it.)
Karlson’s best movie is usually thought to be “The Phenix City Story” (1955), a true account of the corrupt goings-on in that then rotten burg. It is one of the most startling of American films. Its a cross between film noir, and a social problem picture. Another good noir: “Scandal Sheet”.
Karlson’s Westerns are also well-liked: “The Texas Rangers”, “They Rode West”, “Gunman’s Walk”. And so is his war movie “Hell to Eternity”.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Mike
I have to admit that I didn’t know about Sarris’s book until now, or at least that it was a good one to have. Right onto my “To Buy” list it goes.
Nor have I seen any of the other Karlson films you mention, not since I was a kid, anyway. More movies to track down, it looks like!
— Steve
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:35 am
What Karlson’s movie was that in which four robbers get together, after a big heist, to a Caribbean resort and start fighting each other bitterly over the loot? It’s one terrific movie. Lee Van Cleef is one of the robbers.
I saw years, years ago a Western movie that was credited to Karlson, even though Roger Corman had directed parts of it, about a bunch of Confederate soldiers breaking from a Yankee prison camp. A very young Harrison Ford was in it. I thought at the time it was pretty good, but I forget the title. From 1968 or so.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Hi Juri —
(1) This sounds like it might be KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL from 1953, starring John Payne, though I’ve never seen it.
(2) This has to be A TIME FOR KILLING, 1967, with Glenn Ford and Inger Stevens.
— Steve