User reviews

I agree with the writer of the previous comments. This is a little gem of a thriller, not because it has unusual plot twists, or even especially good acting, but because of its fantastic pacing (more like a modern thriller than the usual fare from 1951), and because of its fabulous shot-on-location scenes that put you right in post-war London. I grew up in post- war Britain, so perhaps I'm biased; but some of my favourite films are those which manage to escape the confines of the studio, something that was much rarer in those days than it is now. The world of the film is now more than half a century distant, and when you watch those streets, buses, and cars, those people walking around, it's slightly shocking to realize that many of them now sleep the big sleep, that you're looking through a window into the past. This alone, for me, is worth the price of admission.

The film is also the least talked about, most neglected of all Boulting's films, and as far as I can make out, hasn't ever been released on VHS, let alone on DVD, probably because, once the 1960s New Left had come into the ascendancy, especially in the various film studies institutes, the kind of old fashioned Cold War politics Boulting's film embodies were seen as both embarrassing and naive. Well, it's time for a re-evaluation. The politics of the film never did make much sense, so what we're left with is an exciting, well-crafted, and beautifully paced thriller, one that has, perhaps surprisingly, more heft than many contemporary thrillers, certainly more pizazz than the usual James Bond entries. If you can see it (and I discovered it courtesy of A&E, who ran it as a kind of joke several times in the early 1980s) sit back and enjoy it.

This is a film which I can never remember seeing on TV.Unfortunately it seems as relevant today as when it was made as there have been terrorist campaigns since and sadly at this present time.However what is so ironic about this film is that people were lead ,wrongly to believe,that the security services were on top of the situation,whereas Burgess,MacLean and Ogilvy were happily giving secrets away to the Soviets.Of course they couldn't be guilty,they went to Oxbridge.The film is extremely well written and directed.

An otherwise workmanlike British thriller with familiar overtones of anti-Communist paranoia is salvaged by a lively script that underplays the bellicose propagandizing of other, similar witch-hunts. The emphasis instead is on action and character and some colorful local dialogue, as a network of saboteurs infiltrates the highest (and lowest) levels of democracy with nefarious plots to undermine England's power structure. The enemy agents are never precisely identified (it's clear who they are long before the authorities catch them 'Red' handed), and of course they're no match for the stiff upper lips of Scotland Yard, although it takes an extended gun battle at the Battersea power station to prove it. The film was less flattering and thus less popular than its predecessor, 'Seven Days to Noon', but seen today it remains an enjoyable, well-crafted relic from the warmer days of the Cold War.

Roy Boulting's drama reminded me of the Archer's HOUR OF GLORY, about the work of bomb disposal during the war, released a couple of years earlier. Like that drama, there's nothing glamorous or flag-waving about it. The war may have grown cold and it may now be about Communist cells and politicians happy to use explosions that kill dockworkers for their own political advantage, but it has the same dirty and unhappy feeling about it.

Cinematographer Gilbert Taylor abets this gloomy and paranoid atmosphere with stark British noir lighting. The sets are cramped and crowded, and starkly lit from the side and overhead, to offer dramatic shapes, but never let you look anyone in the eye. The actors are all good: no stars of the era, but performers you would recognize, familiar faces..... so that the audience members would say don't I know him? He couldn't be a bad 'un.... but in Boulting's nasty world, the best can turn out to be the worst, and the only salvation lies in the fact that there is yet some decency among the unregarded.

Well, that last pious wish was because he was working among other big-name behind-the-screen talent and money men. Soon enough he would reunite with his twin brother John and they would turn out some movies where only fools were decent.

This movie would be worthy of further research - but it's popped up at 4 in the morning during an insomnia bout and it'll have to wait.... for instance, the term Communist is never used, though the plot is quote clear by implication. The foreign agent is Russian, the newspapers run headlines about military buildups in 'the East' and the saboteurs are a mix of 'militant' dockers, effete 'intellectuals' who smoke pipes, run contemporary art galleries and go to string trio recitals of work by Berg. There are of course the hapless naives enmeshed by ruthless political manipulators and terrorists - they use that word - who at the last moment realise their errors and raise the alarm in time to save the entire electricity generating capacity of the UK!

I was surprised at how early on in the Cold War this film appeared as it would have been scripted/made in the year that Sen McCarthy came into prominence in the US - could it have been one of the factors that set him and the rest wolf pack on the hunt? It was actually made by one of the Boulting brothers, better known for their later comedies, though Roy made a reputation with propaganda/morale boosting titles in the 40s, so no surprise he sounded the alarums across the Iron Curtain in this title. Following more in the British tradition of that time of 'dramatised documentary', it has some remarkable scenes of seedy, filthy post-War London, using an Irish lead character to soften the obvious class divisions rampant throughout the plot, an irony no doubt, not lost on the co-writer, Frank Harvey, who also played one of the Scotland Yard team who had the shoot-out with the class enemies at the thriller's end.

Frank was to die later in Sydney, Australia - which is where I saw the film, in the wee small hours. Maybe Frank is where Australia's 'hunt for Reds' came from in the 50s too..... or maybe I'm just being too naive, like this movie..... It's a great example of the way in which popular cinema can insinuate that socially and culturally specific groups can be a danger to an imagined national security by heightening the sense of 'the other' (and unknown), breeding distrust and suspicion, enabling those in power to remain secure.

The previous comment on this indeed very fine and intense movie has to be rectified in at least one important aspect: fortunately enough it DOES exist on VHS, more particularly in the series "British Classics Collection". For one or another strange reason though, the manufacturer of this video labeled it as "Crime", while it rather is a "Political action thriller" (even if we don't get much ideological explanations about the motives of the saboteurs.)

After blowing up a ship at London Docks, a group of (communist) saboteurs decide to hit a far more important target, the Battersea Power Station.(For those not acquainted with this tall building which provided grateful Londoners with electricity during the Blitz, it is that somewhat sinister looking power plant used on the cover of Pink Floyd's "Animals" LP from 1977. The band's promotion stunt of attaching a gigantic pig-shaped balloon to one of the chimneys became a quite famous one)

The idea behind the raid against Battersea is of course to destabilize temporarily the City, by provoking a large scale power cut. Scotland Yard in the meantime has found evidence on board of the SS Asia Star which clearly indicates that the explosion was not an unfortunate accident, but a deliberate act of sabotage. Bit by bit, Special Branch manages to close in on the saboteurs. In a very fascinating and intense finale, a large scale battle between the cops and the saboteurs takes place inside the "heart" of Battersea.

It's really a fine action movie with a staccato rhythm, taking place in and around the superb location of an almost mythical building, that somehow managed to survive several attacks by Heinkel and Dornier bombers. Ben Vanhees Berchem Antwerp Belgium

This is a great film, with a decent plot and wonderful location work, not least in the Battersea Power Station climax, as well as claustrophobic interior work, especially in the Ellis electrical shop.

Whether or not the red menace was ever plausible in this sense, there was enough friction to make it a reasonable starting point for a thriller (it's more likely than an invasion from outer space, surely). I suspect it is only the anti-Communist message that caused the film to be totally neglected; I have never seen this on British television, and only found it on DVD. No other film of this quality and style has been so effectively hidden for so long.

What is really worth emphasising is the brilliance of the cast. I can honestly think of no other British film boasting so many familiar faces - there is a period of about 20 minutes in the middle where every scene produces another well-known actor doing a cameo. The 19 billed players are pretty recognisable, but what other film could additionally include, uncredited, Jean Anderson, Alfie Bass, Harry Fowler, Everley Gregg, Peter Jones, Moultrie Kelsall, Sam Kydd, Harry Locke, Victor Maddern, Dandy Nichols, Marianne Stone and Lockwood West, and those were only the ones I spotted. The IMDb cast list includes several others that I will have to look for on a second viewing.

This is the first review I have ever written - and perhaps the most irrelevant you will ever read, however I was wondering if anyone else noticed the sheer number of footsteps the listener hears throughout this film? Really, not a review at all, but I beg you, the reader, to humor me on this, my first time out! **sarah**

A really splendid Cold War thriller full of good London location shots showing scenes in the capital that have sadly gone forever.There are no star names,just first rate character players some of whom no British films are complete without. Special mention should be made of the Irish actor Liam Redmond who wonderfully underplays his role as the Commander with his dry wit and quizzical smile.To me, this is possibly his best film. It seems such a great shame that this film is seldom (if ever) shown on Britsh TV. I came across it in a second hand shop issued as part of a British Classics video collection. It's a great pity that this superb picture is not more well known.

A sequel to the Boulting brothers' popular / regarded thriller 'Seven Days to Noon', once again has London in trouble, targeted this time by a group of terrorists. Their aim is to cripple the economy by blowing up power stations across the country, including London's Battersea Power Station. The story is broadly divided between the secret planning by the terrorists and what they are to do about the growing conscience of Kenneth Griffith and the police's attempts to stop them.

All very British and featuring just about every character actor (tick them off) that was alive in 1951. It's witty, sharp, exciting and moves along at pace. The terrorists are suitably nasty for a 1951 British thriller with the pipe smoking detectives at Scotland Yard all calm and collected (lead by Liam Redmond and Andre Morrell, from Seven Days to Noon), through to the exciting climax. Cracking stuff.

High Treason is a bit less paranoid than some of those anti-Communist thrillers coming out of America at this time. But it does take the same kind of strident tone.

Liam Redmond of the Royal Navy and Andre Morrell of Scotland Yard latch onto a tip that something the Reds might be planning is really big. A whole lot of troop movements are noted behind the Iron Curtain. Could it be the big invasion? If so, what's planned for Great Britain?

It's big all right, a well coordinated plan of sabotage in several locations including the giant Battersea Power Works just outside of London. This is to leave the British vulnerable to invasion so they can neither aid the continent or protect themselves.

Heading all of this and prepared to be the Communist Quisling is MP Anthony Nicholls, an Independent elected on the People's Progress Party. When you see that you know its Communist.

For the people who were dealing with Klaus Fuchs and McLean and Burgess the subversive threat was real enough. Of course I doubt Stalin was ready for this kind of action. The proof is he never attempted anything like what is depicted here.

The cast performs well. Nicholls's part is the most interesting. You wonder who in our Congress might have been viewed as the equivalent.

Roy Boulting deserves remembering as one of the best British directors of the 1950s and 1960s. With films like THE MAGIC BOX, SEVEN DAYS TO NOON, THE FAMILY WAY and other outstanding credits.

HIGH TREASON is certainly a good early Cold War flick, at a time when across the Atlantic US Senator McCarthy was launching his famous House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) which basically suspected everyone of communist leanings, and those suspicions were only heightened in Great Britain, as part of a continent - Europe - where World War Two had begun and had remained its prime theater, with Russia embarking on expansionism after the conflict, and spies like Kim Philby and others defecting to the USSR.

HIGH TREASON examines the way British police investigate a bombing incident resulting in human and instructural losses, and link it to a spy ring headed by a British traitor. It is certainly well done, even if I have some reservations about the authenticity of the final shootout.

Convincing acting, cinematography and realistic dialogue all help, even if HIGH TREASON rates nowhere near masterpiece. 7/10.

The Commies are trying to overtake postwar England in High Treason from 1951. Directed by Roy Boulting, the film stars Liam Redmond, Andre Morrell, Joan Hickson, and Patric Doonan.

Redmond plays Commander of the Special Branch who works with MI-5 to uncover the cell and its next plot, which is to knock out Britain's power grids.

This is a pretty good film though not particularly exciting or suspenseful due to a lackluster script. What I liked was the atmospheric and cinematography.

Look for Miss Marlowe (Joan Hickson) in a supporting role.

Pretty good. I found this on a list of best British noirs. Not sure I agree, but I loved the shots of postwar London.

The early 1950s saw a ton of anti-communism movies. In the US, such films tended to be sensationalistic and broad....but "High Treason" is different...and in good ways. Instead of being exciting and BIG, the film stresses realism...and it won me over as a result.

The film begins with a bombing. Someone or group of people has apparently been terrorizing Britain by blowing up various factories....but why? Well, it ends up being the work of a group of dedicated spies....and their plans for violence and terror have only just begun. Can the law catch up to them before it's too late?

It's interesting that no where in the film do they talk about communism nor the Soviet Union...never. Instead, they just focus on the investigative process and show, in a very realistic manner, how such an investigation might be conducted. As a result, the authorities are NOT geniuses with super-human abilities...just dedicated and crafty. This is THE reason I loved the film and recommend it to you.

Exciting, Constantly On-the-Move.

This Overlooked Early-50's British Cold-War Thriller Never Lulls.

Introducing a Multitude of Characters, Spys, Counter-Intelligence Officers, and Every-Day Folks Caught in the Middle.

It's a Multifaceted Sabotage Plot.

The Fast-Paced Film is Well Acted and Shot.

With a Plethora of Outdoor Scenes, Close-Knit Indoor Meetings of the Plotters and Counter-Plotters.

An Intelligent Script Accompanies the Mystery and Intrigue.

The Movie is a Sequel, Made by the Same Production Team that did..."Seven Days to Noon" (1950).

The Director's Production Team-Mate and Brother, John Bolton, Did one of the Best British Film-Noirs, "Brighton Rock" (1948).

This is a Crackling "Communist" Infiltration Movie.

Although, Communist, Reds, of Soviet-Union is Never Explicitly Stated.

Only its Philosophy and Politics.

Cold-War Movies from the Early 50's, a Heart-Beat Away Joe McCarthy and All, Doesn't Get Much Better.

The Conclusion in the Industrial Sector Doesn't Hold Back on Thrills and Spares No Expense in its Verisimilitude.

Breathtaking, and a Must-See.

This film is extremely cleverly made up. No one knows anything in the beginning, and the actors and audience alike are left in complete ignorance of what is going on and like the police only left with a few loose ends leading nowhere, until at last Mr Ward is caught in a picture, which provides the key to untangling the extremely comprehensive plot with its circle of saboteurs.

Another key is the tutorial institute, and some of the finest scenes are from there. for instance when the inspector has to attend a music performance of thoroughly modern music not sounding very well, and you can see how he suffers, while the others pretend to understand the meaning of this abstract katzenjammer.

Kenneth Griffith makes an unforgettable performance as the martyr of the intrigue, getting caught up in a web he can't extricate himself from and still making something of the hero of the drama - without him the police would never have arrived in time.

Another striking performance is Anthony Nicholls as the MP making a thoroughly charming and cultivated presence with great villainy hidden beneath. His final conversation with the commodore is the top of the film with the lights efficiently going out...

Notable is also Joan Hickson as the mother, playing a much more convincing and heart-rending role than her later better known ones as Miss Marple.

Another vital part is Mary Morris as Anna Braun, irresistibly beautiful like an impressing viper full of venom whom you just must be paralyzed by for fascination until she stings...

But the film is full of such characters. You can never imagine that Stringer is not actually played by a Russian, his accent is so perfectly Russian, and the music adds to it as well, especially at the tutorial college with its concerts as the perfect smokescreen for a truly devilish coven - the film reminds not a little of Hitchcock's "Sabotage" in its recklessly cruel set-up.

The film boasts a talented cast, including Liam Redmond, André Morell, and Anthony Bushell, who deliver compelling performances throughout. The plot moves at a brisk pace, keeping the audience engaged as the tension mounts.

"High Treason" is a product of its time, made during the height of the Cold War when paranoia about communist spies was rampant. However, the film's themes and plot are still relevant today, as the fear of betrayal and the dangers of powerful new technologies continue to be pertinent issues. "High Treason" is an engaging and thought-provoking thriller that deserves more attention from modern audiences. Its skilled direction, talented cast, and timeless themes make it a classic of the British thriller genre. The film's impressive cinematography and use of suspenseful music enhance the overall viewing experience, adding to the tension and drama of the story. It remains a captivating and relevant piece of cinema that showcases the talents of its cast and crew.

'High Treason' was the second of an unofficial trio of cold war dramas directed by Roy Boulting, beginning with 'Seven Days to Noon' in 1950 and ending with 'Suspect' in 1960. For the few people that have ever heard of it, 'High Treason' comes as an embarrassment undoing all the good that Roy and his brother John had done the year before with the Oscar-winning 'Seven Days to Noon' which stands up impeccably to modern political sensibilities after nearly seventy years; while 'High Treason' seems to belong more with Hollywood exercises in Red-baiting paranoia like 'The Iron Curtain' and 'I Was a Communist for the FBI'.

As filmmaking, however, it's well up to the standards of the Boultings' other films of the period, immaculately shot on location by Gilbert Taylor (and giving pride of place in a slam-bang climax to my favourite London landmark, Battersea power station), wittily scripted and flavourfully acted by an enormous cast of familiar British faces (including Andre Morell returning as Supt. Folland from 'Seven Days to Noon').

Just as ten years earlier wartime British films had exaggerated the extent of activity by wartime British fifth columnists, so the organised sabotage depicted here is rather fanciful. But the Portland spy case ten years later proved 'High Treason's depiction of spies in suburbia was spot on, while the defection of Burgess & Maclean the very year the film was released would eventually blow the lid off just how high within the British establishment the Kremlin's influence had reached - as this film insinuates in the unctuous form of the urbanely treacherous Grant Mansfield. (At that very moment a joint British & American operation to incite a popular revolt against the Communist regime of Enver Hoxha in Albania was meeting with failure after catastrophic failure costing the lives of over 300 agents because operational matters had been placed in the dependable hands one of the Foreign Office's most trusted men, a splendid fellow named Kim Philby.)

High Treason is so good l bought the film myself, l must have watched it 20 times in the last few months, it's B&W 1951 but that does not detract from a cracking story, and to watch the Special Branch and MI5 sort it all out is just a dream.

It's not often l give a film 10 points but this is well written, and well acted, Liam Redmond plays Cmdr. Robert Brennan, Andre Morell is his assistant, also Ken Griffiths, Joan Hickson, Geofrey Keen, and an excellent part for Dora Bryan and her kettle....l really do rate this film, it's a real adventure, l can't recommend this enough, if you like good B&W films, this has got to be the one that you must have or you can watch is on You Tube.

Acting and writing are as close to perfect as anyone can expect from a movie.

None of the actors are household names today, but each and every one is about as perfect in his role as one could expect, even from those magnificent British players.

Writers created a nearly perfect script, with tension and sympathy, with drama and excitement.

Villains are quite definitely villains -- but not from their viewpoint. They are working for peace and democracy. They recruit new members among those seeking "a world without war" and "a government run by the people."

Surely they are communists, and in reality -- as opposed to what they tell their potential recruits and followers -- are agents of a foreign power, in this case the Soviet Union, but never are they labeled as such.

So a viewer can watch and enjoy without political considerations, with, instead, concern about the intended villainy, worry for the possible innocent victims; one need not think about labels, such as "communist" or "Soviet agent," but ponder instead the fact that collectivist and statist ideologies brush off the fact that violence and initiated force always have victims, however lofty the proclaimed ideals.

One of the policemen tells a leader of the saboteurs, "But surely history, and recent history also shows us ... that wherever people have known the light, they don't tolerate the darkness for very long." Ah, would that that were true.

Even right here in these United States, ignorant or stupid or, yes, villainous people are praising and supporting the darkness. Witness the popularity of Che T-shirts, of riots on college campuses to prevent other opinions from being heard, of street demonstrations created for the purpose of violence -- and if the results are not darkness, and intended to bring darkness, then darkness has not ever been the goal of political violence.

This movie, "High Treason," was produced before most of the people around now to see it were even born, even before I was born. Yet it is still relevant, as warning of what can happen now, and as a history lesson of what actually did happen.

"High Treason" is an excellent motion picture, one I had never heard of before accidentally finding a very good print at YouTube. I highly recommend it. In fact, I urge you to see it.