Film Review . . .

"State Secret"

Political Thriller

The idea of Douglas Fairbanks Junior being a surgeon with a world reputation is comic enough. His performing his usual he-man antics in this role, and in the midst of a macabre nightmare supposed to represent a country east of the Oder, was a screaming farce. In this fairytale world, the people are sullen and unapproachable, and yet they cheer ecstatically at the sight of their Premier, and (like the eminently pleasant cable-car driver) they are cheerfully loyal to their government. They live under the fear of "secret police," yet all the constabulary wear flamboyant uniforms and rush about manhandling suspected citizens in the street. They are technically backward and carry their produce to market in bullock-drays, yet they have slick sanitoria, motor highways, and railways. The government is tyrannical, yet the only effective help a victim of brutality, is from a black-market racketeer and a vaudeville whore. The members of the government are represented as being fanatical for their cause, and yet they are at the same time cynical and worldly-wise.

"State Secret" consists of nonsensical contradictions woven into a hymn of hate. Dr. Markow comes to "Voisnia" by invitation, performs an operation on the failing Premier, who dies (presumably as a result). Although there is a stand-in to make public appearances, the Government cannot allow the doctor loose with the knowledge of the Premier's death. Colonel Galcon (hideous lantern-jawed Jack Hawkins) is the Cabinet Minister who seems to have nothing better to do than to give chase after the doctor across the countryside in an American automobile. The doc is trying (unsuccessfully) to reach the U.S. Embassy, is hidden by the prostitute from the music hall (Glynis Johns) who does a hair-raising alpine crossing with him—straight into a trap laid by the diabolical Galcon. Then events throng fast—the stand-in is shot publicly, the cat is out of the bag, and doctor and lady-friend are turned free to go back home to the wonderful western world where there is still freedom, and, presumably, the Ku Klux Klan, Tamany Hall, MacArthur, smallpox, and coca cola. What a thrill.