"The Secret Tunnel" (1948) is a wonderful 49 minute film produced by Merton Park Studios and Children's Entertainment Film about an art theft (a Rembrandt) from a large country home in Britain. Two boys, one the son of the owner, the other the son of a worker on the grounds of the home, foil the robbery in the end. This is an ingenious and very well acted film that, though made for both young audiences and adults alike, plays as if it were a good guys public versus a bad guys group, not vigilante style good guys, just "we can solve this - and had better - as well as the cops - and do it before the bad guys escape". More in the idea of Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew, nevertheless, the two boys, Tony Wager and Ivor Bowyer, are loads of fun to watch. It doesn't at all seem like "a kid's show". Just happens to have two kids doing the job adults might do. And they do it with great panache. Really recommend this! Its innocence, yet wonderful panache, will please any good mystery lover. This is easily an 8 out of 10. The country house is beautiful, too. Also appearing in this British film are Murray Matheson, Gerald Pring, Thelma Rea, Frank Henderson, John H. Sullivan, and Michael Kelly. This was shot at Flixton Hall and surrounding area in Suffolk. It seems Flixton Hall was razed in 1953. Beautiful place, but someone has to pay the upkeep - or, no... They didn't...
