1950 was a great year for films, but for some reason two fine ones came out that had the same plot line (with variations) set in two different parts of the world. These were CRISIS and STATE SECRET. CRISIS was set in Latin America, in a country run by a dictator and his cronies, similar to the Perons in Argentina. The dictator (Jose Ferrer) has a brain tumor, and when an American brain surgeon (Cary Grant) and his wife come to the country on a vacation, the dictator puts pressure on the brain surgeon to perform secret surgery on him. Grant also has pressure on him by the local revolutionaries (led by Gilbert Roland) to botch the operation.
STATE SECRET was a British film starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Jack Hawkins, Glynnis Johns, and Herbert Lom. Vacationing in a Balkan state that is not totally Communist (read Yugoslavia), Fairbanks is pressured by the head of the Secret Service (Hawkins) into operating on the Genreralisimo (a type of elderly version of Tito) who is gravely ill. When, after an initial period where the patient is responding well to the operation, the dictator dies, Fairbanks realizes that his life is in danger (Hawkins can't have the death of the dictator revealed so early - there has to be a replacement ready in the wings). Fairbanks' adventures in fleeing (aided by Johns and Lom) are the basis of the plot.
I find the sociological background to Latin American politics in CRISIS better than the Balkan background to STATE SECRET, but there are nice touches. Hawkins is a dangerous foe, but he is a man with an astute political brain. Lom (playing his normal villainous type: a blackmailing scoundrel) turns in a superb comic performance when he unwittingly stumbles on a secret he'd prefer never knowing at all. Fairbanks Jr. was always underrated as an actor, because too many critics saw him as trying to carry on the tradition of swashbuckling films his father made famous in the silent period. But he was better than that, and shows real, growing concern for Johns and her safety as the film continues.
If possible try to see this and CRISIS together, to see which one is better. I bet you will find that an impossible choice. Enjoy them both.
