Product: The Third Secret (1964)
Rating: 4.0
The Secret Face of Madness
Here's a tidy little British suspense film from 1964 that will hold your interest throughout. Well-received and highly regarded at the time, it soon fell out of view, overshadowed by THE NANNY and BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING and SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON and several other, more sensational British chillers of the same era. Now it's back on DVD, and worth a look from anyone who enjoys a literate, well-acted mystery.A London psychiatrist is found dead, an apparent suicide, but his young daughter (Pamela Franklin) is convinced he was murdered by one of his patients. She appeals to the only patient she trusts, a TV commentator played by Stephen Boyd, to investigate the others. One of them is a dangerous paranoid schizophrenic--but who is it? The passive/aggressive art dealer (Richard Attenborough)? The frigid secretary (Diane Cilento)? The eminent judge with an unmentionable vice (Jack Hawkins)? Or is it Boyd himself, whose recent loss of wife and child to tragedy has unbalanced him, causing disturbing dreams and sudden, violent behavior? He investigates, leading to a surprise finale.The publicity for the film played on the recent success of PSYCHO and DIABOLIQUE, asking audiences to see it from the beginning and please not to reveal the shocking "third secret" to other potential moviegoers. It's not really as shocking as all that--not now, anyway, though it might have been in 1964--but it's a solid, entertaining diversion. Try it.