There are several reasons for seeing this film, one of
the main ones being the chance to see Audrey Hepburn revealed as the ballet
dancer she trained so hard to be. But this is also a very earnest enterprise
that attempts to examine the morality of violence for the greater good. Made
just six years after the ending of the Second World War, it looks at the
collateral damage of direct action: how many innocent lives are acceptable in
the pursuit of fascists?
It’s a question with a very contemporary relevance… but
when over the last century have their not been fascists to kill? When is the
call to war unanswerable and when do the needs of the many suddenly outweigh
those of the few? There can hardly have been anyone working on this film not
affected personally by the losses of the war and, whilst the film sometimes
feels a little restrained, it deals in a language that would have been more
understandable at the time. After the devastation you don’t really need to
shout.
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| Valentina Cortese |
Directed by Thorold Dickinson
Secret People is the story of two sisters, Maria (Valentina
Cortese) and Nora Brentano (Angela Fouldes) sent from an unnamed European
state to stay with their uncle Anselmo (Charles Goldner) in London. Their
father is an outspoken journalist in his own country, a man who believes in the
power of words and not violence and yet who has finally been arrested by the
country’s ruler, General Galborn (Hugo Schuster). The future is uncertain and
Maria leaves behind her lover Louis (Serge Reggiani) - desperate times and soon
Maria receives a parcel containing her father’s precious pen – his “sword” – he
has been killed by the butcher Brentano.
The years pass and whilst Maria learns to cook in
Anselmo’s Café, Nora grows up into Audrey Hepburn and she can dance!
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| Charles Goldner |
Maria longs for a change of pace and to be a writer
herself telling Anselmo that she wants to leave to follow in her father’s
footsteps. Her Uncle is a gracious as ever and proposes a trip to Paris to see
an exhibition mirroring Britain’s own Festival of 1951. Whilst there, they
enjoy a full day of eating and sightseeing before encountering General Galborn
arriving at the British pavilion. He is barracked by protesters one of whom
turns out to be long-lost Louis.
Maria and Louis enjoy a blissful day catching up – and
the subtle buttoning of her shirt top in his garret hint at their level of
intimacy – but in the evening he is distracted away by people who are clearly
members of a cell of freedom fighters: ruthless types who kill an untrustworthy
contact in between Maria and Louis’s dancing at a night club.
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| Louis' cell - Serge Reggiani second from left |
But Maria has no idea who she is now dancing with and,
learning that Galborn is visiting Britain, Louis follows the girls back home:
they are to be his cover and his route to target. He arranges for Nora to pass
an audition to dance at the garden party arranged for the General’s visit and
then tells Maria of his plan to kill the man who had her father murdered.
She is to carry a compact into the party and then pass it
on to another member of the group who will place it under the General’s chair.
It is to be a controlled explosion and no one else should be hurt. Maria is
confused, and disorientated by the last minute shock and concern for Nora she
agrees to the plot.
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| Audrey takes flight |
But, once inside the party, she can hardly bear to watch
as Nora dances and then a clown (your genuine Charlie Cairoli) take the stage.
The tension is palpable as she waits for the explosion and when the bomb goes
off fatally injuring a waitress she rushes in to help. The General escapes
virtually unscathed but the woman dies and Maria is hailed as a hero.
Louis is working in conjunction with a shadowy –
literally – group of home-grown revolutionaries who meet in darkened rooms to
discuss and sign off any actions. He takes Maria to see them after the action
to assure them that she’ll keep their secrets but neither party is sure as she
gets called into Scotland Yard.
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| Nora dances and then Maria looks on waiting for the bomb to go off... |
Maria appalled by the cold calculation of Louis’ and
these armchair anarchists tells all to the kindly Miss Jackson (Irene Worth)
and her earnest Inspector Eliot (Reginald Tate) and a plan is hatched to catch
the key players, Louis included.
There are brooding shots aplenty of traffic-free grimed
London streets around Soho I’d guess, as the Special Branch closes in and
events come to a head… Can Maria escape the consequences of Louis’ actions and
will even Nora be pulled into the vortex of his ever increasing desperation?
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| Maria and Louis walk down Litchfield Street, past The Ivy towards Charing Cross Road |
Secret People
gets damned with faint praise in some reviews but in truth it’s pretty
uncompromising and whilst some books get balanced the General carries on: Nora
and Marie’s father’s murder goes unpunished.
Louis’ means do not justify his ends which have become
increasingly fogged by the inaccuracy of his actions and the flawed thinking
behind them. The process has become its own justification and the death of the
waitress is just another small price to pay for their eventual and unlikely
success.
The film doesn’t point to any other solution other than
Marie’s father’s enduring plea for love and understanding. This isn’t soft or
“dated”, these people had just fought a threat infinitely more vicious than any
current threat to democracy and millions had died when there was genuinely no
other way to go.
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| Them heavy people |
So, for Louis, accepting the talking of innocent lives in
the pursuit of political change is a step over to the other side, the
totalitarianism he supposedly hates when expediency stops at nothing in pursuit
of the aim.
Marie’s father’s words are heard again urging peace, understanding and dialogue as the only solution: the pen is always mightier than the sword.
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| Valentina Cortese |
Valentina Cortese gives a superb performance which more
than compensates for the film’s occasionally deliberate tone. She brings a
naturalism that adds tone and texture from the encouraging pat on Audrey’s tutu
as she auditions to the unbelievable shift from besotted excitement before the
party to the realisation of Louis’ double betrayal: in one sublime moment love
to horror via disbelief.
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| Audrey steps out |
Ms. Hepburn adds light to the play and dances superbly
those years in the Belgian ballet conservatory enabling her to pirouette on
point with power and grace belying her wartime deprivations that would forever
impact on her appearance. Make war no more.
The Secret People
are everywhere but hard to find… you might try watching Amazon for it surely
needs a re-release.
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