The Secret Ways ** (1961, Richard Widmark, Sonja Ziemann, Charles Regnier, Walter Rilla, Howard Vernon, Senta Berger) – Classic Movie Review 12,278

The intriguing 1961 black and white espionage thriller The Secret Ways stars Richard Widmark, is strikingly shot on location by Max Green, and has the first major film score by John Williams.

Director Phil Karlson’s 1961 black and white adventure thriller The Secret Ways is an interesting and intriguing Sixties Cold War espionage drama, set during the 1956 Hungarian uprising,

Richard Widmark stars as an American mercenary hired to set out to help a Hungarian intellectual resistance leader (Walter Rilla) to defect to the West from Soviet-occupied Budapest, with the aid of the man’s daughter (Sonja Ziemann). In desperate danger, the threesome is saved by a patriot called The Count (Charles Regnier).

This sincere and intelligent yet overlong seeming (112 minutes) and murky cloak-and-dagger suspense mystery thriller is based on a novel by Scottish author Alistair MacLean and has all the right elements, but can’t seem to marshal them into a winning formula.

The movie is imposing and stylish but ultimately seems posturing and shallow, and throughout it is lacking in the kind of subtlety, tension and conviction expected from a quality spy adventure. However, Widmark is good company, though, giving it some weight and involvement, and Karlson’s professionalism helps, giving it some energy. And it is strikingly photographed mostly on location in black and white by distinguished veteran cinematographer Max Green, plus it has the first major film score by John Williams. For all its faults, it is full of interest.

It is based on Alistair MacLean’s 1959 Cold War thriller The Last Frontier, released in the United States under the title The Secret Ways.

The cast are Richard Widmark, Sonja Ziemann, Charles Regnier, Walter Rilla, Howard Vernon, Senta Berger, Heinz Moog, Hubert Von Meyerinck, Stefan Schnabel, John Horsley, Walter Witz, Raoul Retzer, George Kovary, Adi Berber, and Jochen Brockmann.

Richard Widmark produces, co-directs (uncredited) and stars. Widmark’s wife, Jean Hazlewood, wrote the screenplay, her only screenwriting credit. They met at Lake Forest College where she was a drama student, and married on 5 April 1942, staying married till her death on 2 March 1997, with one child, Anne Heath Widmark.

Apparently Widmark sacked director Karlson in the last weeks of production and took over the direction.

Senta Berger said this was her first major role and first American film after meeting Widmark in Vienna for casting. He spotted her aged 18 riding a bike and eating an ice cream cone, her hair in braids. Berger was born in 1941 in Vienna, and is still filming in 2022.

Scenes ae filmed in Zurich, Switzerland and Vienna, which also stands in for Budapest, as well as at Universal Studios, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California.

Producer Euan Lloyd had been Widmark’s agent. Widmark later helped him on Who Dares Wins (1982) when he needed an American name to secure US distribution.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,278

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