State Secret [The Great Manhunt] **** (1950, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins, Herbert Lom) – Classic Movie Review 13,570

Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat‘s spirited 1950 British comedy drama thriller film State Secret stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins and Herbert Lom.

‘ADVENTURE SWEEPING ACROSS A CONTINENT!’ ‘In all the world’s capital’s they wonder… and wait for… The Secret this man knows!’

Writer/ director Sidney Gilliat’s 1950 British film State Secret [The Great Manhunt] is based on the novel Appointment with Fear by Roy Huggins, and stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins, and Herbert Lom.

Producers Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat again prove their mastery of the comedy thriller with this first-rate, exciting thriller tale of US surgeon John Marlowe (Douglas Fairbanks Jr), who is tricked into operating on a Balkan state president to try to keep him alive for an impending election. When the head of state expires, Fairbanks Jr goes on the run from spies and police who are after him, along with feisty music-hall showgirl Lisa Robinson (Glynis Johns) and creepy Balkan crook Theodor (Herbert Lom).

Launder and Gilliat bring a lot of the kind of spirited fun they brought to Night Train to Munich thanks to the sprightly playing, entertaining story, nimble script, evocative atmosphere and smart pace. It is filmed in handsome style by ace cinematographer Robert Krasker at Isleworth Studios in London, and mostly on location in and around Verona, Trento and the Dolomites, Italy.

It is shot in black and white, but a very attractive colorised version is available.

It runs 105 minutes.

The US version called The Great Manhunt runs 97 minutes.

Release date: 11 September 1950 (UK).

Also in the cast are Carl Jaffe, Walter Rilla, Karel Stepanek, Gerard Heinz, Hans Moser, Anton Diffring, Peter Illing, Olga Lowe, Leonard Sachs, Robert Ayres, Martin Boddey, Russell Waters, Arthur Howard, Guido Lorraine, Howard Douglas, Leslie Linder, Leo Bieber, Nelly Arno, Paul Demel, Danny Green, Therese Van Kye, Arthur Reynolds, Richard Molinas, Eric Pohlmann, Louis Wiechert, Gerik Schjelderup, Henrik Jacobsen, and Arthur Skinner.

State Secret [The Great Manhunt] is directed by Sidney Gilliat, runs 105 minutes, is made by London Films, is released by British Lion Films (UK) and Columbia (US), is written by Sidney Gilliat, is shot by Robert Krasker, is produced by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, is scored by William Alwyn, and is designed by Wilfred Shingleton.

Fairbanks Jr recalled: ‘I thought I did my best work ever. Sidney really kept the pot boiling.’

Gilliat recalled: ‘The picture was highly profitable, got good notices.’

The film has a similar plot to Crisis (1950), filmed simultaneously. Crisis was written in 1950, but Gilliat had the idea for his film from a newspaper article he read shortly before World War Two, planning it as a chase thriller along the lines of Night Train to Munich (1940). Of course it proved impossible to make State Secret during the war.

The film is set in the fictional country of Vosnia, which Sidney Gilliat said was meant to suggest Spain to left-wingers or Yugoslavia to right-wingers. A Vosnian language was created for the film by Georgina Shield, a London School of Languages linguistics expert, combining Latin and Slavic elements, and the actors took classes in learning how to speak it. Trento stood in for the fictitious capital of Vosnia, though filming in Italy was difficult because of the unions and political affiliations.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,570

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