The Traitors **** (1962, Patrick Allen, Jacqueline Ellis, James Maxwell, Ewan Roberts, Zena Walker) – Classic Movie Review 12,937

The 1962 British spy thriller film The Traitors stars Patrick Allen, Jacqueline Ellis, James Maxwell and Zena Walker. It tells of deadly cat and mouse game between UK and US government agents and a spy ring after the discovery of a top secret microfilm.

‘In Their Murderous Hands They Hold The Awesome Secrets That Contain The Security Of The Entire World!’

Director Robert Tronson’s 1962 British black and white second-feature espionage drama film The Traitors stars Patrick Allen, Jacqueline Ellis, James Maxwell, Zena Walker, and Ewan Roberts. It tells of deadly cat and mouse game between UK and US government agents and a communist spy ring after the discovery of a top secret microfilm.

A top secret microfilm is found after a plane crash in Germany near a US military research centre, and the US realises that NATO intelligence is being leaked to foreign interests and calls in the Brits. So two United Nations secret service men, one a British agent (Patrick Allen) and the other an American from NATO (James Maxwell), are dispatched by Allen’s blustering, incapable boss Colonel Burlinson (Ewan Roberts) to trap the mole and smash the communist spy ring.

The Traitors is a little-known gem of a spy thriller starring Patrick Allen and James Maxwell as John Lane and Ray Ellis, the spies on the trail, as well as Jacqueline Ellis as spy Mary, Allen’s colleague and Maxwell’s brief love interest, and Zena Walker as Allen’s French ex-wife Annette Lane. In both cases, spying is getting in the way of love.

The taut script by Jim O’Connolly and fast-paced direction are of a quality not usually necessarily associated with British B-movie thrillers, and the authoritative acting is rock solid from a nifty little company. Patrick Allen and James Maxwell are broodingly intense and serious as the spies, bonding in a manly way in the film’s central relationship. Perhaps because of this, female characters have to be brought in, but they are very subsidiary and unnecessary to the actual story, giving Jacqueline Ellis and particularly Zena Walker (saddled with a ‘French’ accent) a difficult time. Intriguingly, her character of Annette is very like George Smiley’s wife Ann, who is introduced in John le Carré’s novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974). Indeed, The Traitors has a very John le Carré flavour, particularly of Call for the Dead and the film adaptation The Deadly Affair.

Jeffrey Segal is effective as the sinister spy (and GP) Dr Lindt, Ewan Roberts has a lot of rewarding screen time as Colonel Burlinson, and Harold Goodwin deservedly has more to do than usual as John Lane’s cheery operative Edwards.

Okay there are script wobbles in plotting (some of it not clear) and dialogue (some of it hackneyed and weak, particularly the romance stuff). But overall the screenplay is a bit of a peach, capturing the grungy British realism era in a treasurable time capsule.

But perhaps best of all is how it gets out and about in a depressed-looking London, still so evidently suffering from the economic effects of the Second World War. This past really looks like another country. It is tremendous that there is such a great deal of gritty, realist location shooting.

There are two major set pieces, one in a swimming baths and another in a cinema that serve as rendezvous points in the story, both sequences going extremely well. The film really hots up with the two scenes set in the baths. The sequence in the cinema a classic B‑movie set‑piece. The spies arrange a covert hand‑off in the dress circle of the cinema, and one of the agents demanding more money is killed there while a noisy war‑film (Theirs is the Glory, 1946) is playing on the screen.

The cinema building in the movie has been identified as the Coronet on Notting Hill or the ABC cinema on Fulham Road, at the corner of Drayton Gardens. But Reelstreets and several fan‑contributed location logs identify the cinema building in the movie as the former Grange Cinema, Messina Avenue and Kilburn High Road.

Meanwhile, back at the baths…

After a tense chase, Dr Lindt (Jeffrey Segal) reaches the public swimming pool where the spy hand‑off is supposed to happen and the final confrontation unfolds in the interior pool area.

The climactic wet‑room showdown takes place at the old Wedlake Street Public Baths and Wash‑House in Maida Vale, London W10. It opened in the early 1900s, and remained in use for several decades, but closed in 1980, and the building was later demolished.

Portobello Road Market can be seen as the heroes track the doctor to his surgery, just off Portobello Road. The doctor’s wife (Anne Padwick) catches a number 15 bus from Ladbroke Road, which runs parallel to Portobello Road, alighting at Horse Guards Parade, and then walks to St James Park. The doctor takes a taxi and catches a number 18 bus to meet his contact alighting at Halfpenny Steps (a pedestrian bridge, now replaced, across Regents Canal) in Maida Vale, on the other side of which is the Wedlake Street Baths.

I’m afraid that this is correct: there is no way the heroes’ microphone could have been planted behind the grille in the spy doctor’s surgery, and understandably the film makes no attempt to try to show or explain how it could be done. But, it’s only a movie.

It is based on an idea by Jim O’Connolly and Joe Levy.

Also in the cast are Jeffrey Segal, Anne Padwick, Harold Goodwin, John Bown (as John Brown), Sean Lynch, Jack May, Mark Singleton, A J Brown, and Anton Rodgers.

The studio work is at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Iver, Buckinghamshire, England.

Jacqueline Ellis

Jacqueline Ellis was born on June 21, 1934 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She appeared as both good girls and bad girls in many British crime B-movies and TV shows in England. They include The Traitors and The Sinister Man (both with Patrick Allen); Jim O’Connolly’s directorial crime film The Hi-Jackers with Anthony Booth and Harold Goodwin; Accidental Death with John Carson; and on TV in The Saint with Roger Moore. She had a busy two-decade career from 1955 to 1974.

The Traitors is directed by Robert Tronson, runs 70 minutes, is made by Ello Productions [James O’Connolly Productions], is released by Rank Film Distributors (UK) and Universal Pictures (US), is written by Jim O’Connolly, based on an idea by Jim O’Connolly (as J P O’Connolly) and Joe Levy (as J Levy), is shot in black and white by Michael Reed, is produced by Jim O’Connolly, is scored by Johnny Douglas, and is designed by Bert Davey.

The Traitors went on UK general release on the Rank circuit from 26 August 1962 as supporting film to Tiara Tahiti (1962).

The cast

The cast are Patrick Allen as John Lane, Jacqueline Ellis as Mary, James Maxwell as Ray Ellis, Zena Walker as Annette Lane, Ewan Roberts as Colonel Burlinson, Jeffrey Segal as Dr Lindt, Anne Padwick as Mrs Lindt, Harold Goodwin as Edwards, John Bown (billed as John Brown) as Mason, Reed De Rouen as General Waring, Sean Lynch as Porter, Jack May as Burton, Anton Rodgers as Curtis, Mark Singleton as Venner, A J Brown as the government Minister, Michael Corcoran as Little, Sheldon Lawrence as American Officer, Robert Raglan as  Security Officer at Check-in Desk, Fanny Carby as Angry Mother in Surgery, and Henry De Bray as restaurateur Marcel.

The Traitors are named at the end: Jeffrey Segal as Dr Lindt, Anne Padwick as Mrs Lindt, Jack May as Burton, Mark Singleton as Venner, and Sean Lynch as Porter.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,937

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com