Scotland Yard contre X

Stewart Granger was the best actor in English cinema in their history , he was famous in the kind of historical films especially in the time of 17th until 19th centuries.

In this film he made a surprise for the audience for changing his choice for the kind of thriller films which was cleverness from him to prove for all people that he was good actor and great artist in his history , he increased in this classical film beside his diamond films as:1- prisoner of Zenda. 2- The treasure of king Solemon. 3- Beau Brummel. 4- Salome.

This film made their thriller in cleverly way with professional touch which made it their success.

Stewart Granger plays John Brent, a man you feel really sorry for throughout much of the movie. It seems he's a successful businessman and yet his life is an apparent mess. His wife has left him and he's being blackmailed by a spineless drunk dentist. Could things get worse? Absolutely. But how and how he tries to extricate himself....you'll just have to see that when you watch this British thriller.

The film manages to work well for quite a few reasons. The acting is really very good, the writing clever and imaginative and the director managed to infuse the film with a nice brooding mood. Overall, a film that should be higher rated than it currently is...and well worth your time.

"The Secret Partner," from 1961, is a nifty British film starring Stewart Granger, Haya Harareet, and Bernard Lee. Granger is a successful businessman, John Brent, who is being blackmailed by a dentist. The man knows that in the past, Brent went by another name and was caught embezzling. Because of all the money Brent spends on blackmail, his wife (Harareet) believes that there's another woman. When he has a party for business and tells people she's in Zurich, his wife returns and, in front of the guests, announces that she's leaving him.

When a safe at his business is robbed, suspicion falls on him because he is one of two people who have the combination. His office keys show filings from being copied. He denies ever giving anyone the combination or having the keys copied. The dentist, meanwhile, is having problems of his own - he's visited by a mysterious man who makes some demands of him.

Since it's to be the last case of a retiring detective superintendent (Lee), he's anxious to solve the robbery. It all seems a little too pat for him.

Nifty mystery with not only some twists, but an unexpected ending.

I really liked this film. Granger does a good job as the man with problems everywhere he looks. Harareet is beautiful, but doesn't have much of a role. Lee is likable as the retiring superintendent, reminding us that justice isn't always found in the courts.

Recommended.

Very few crime films end on a tragic note, especially if the plot does not involve deaths and maiming. This is one such example. The last shot of the film--a long shot--of the protagonist walking alone arouses the viewers pity.

The film seems to infer that the bad guys remain bad and end up losers. Today such stories would seem sociologically incorrect to film. The plot of the film is rather good and would provide the viewer with his/her money's worth.

The last half hour of the film not only entertains but is quaintly philosophical. Haya Harareet's ("Ben Hur"'s Esther) character is a fascinating study of love for her husband and what she decides to do is even more poignant and elegant. Stewart Granger and Bernard Lee (M of the early James Bond films) perform well, but the ultimate heroes are the story writers (David Pursall and Jack Seddon) and the director Basil Deardon who make the film fairly above-average entertainment.

I first saw this film in 1961. Many years later, it turned up on Turner Classic Movies and, like a fool, I sat here watching it without making a tape of it. What a mistake that was. Although this film is well worth watching and has a clever twist ending, all indications are that it is unavailable anywhere on video or DVD. Don't miss it if it comes up on TV again.