The Third Secret (1964)

Directed by Charles Crichton; produced by Robert L Joseph

Eminent psychiatrist Leo Whitset (Peter Copley) is found in his office, shot in the head. The crime scene, the wound – to which he almost immediately succumbs – and his last words persuade police and the coroner that he committed suicide. But his young daughter, Cathy (Pamela Franklin), vehemently disputes the verdict and persuades one of her father’s past patients, television commentator Alex Stedman (Stephen Boyd), to look into the matter. There is no shortage of suspects: a mousey secretary (Diane Cilento), a defensive art-gallery owner (Richard Attenborough), a respected judge (Jack Hawkins), even Whitset’s colleague (Paul Rogers). But it’s possible the killer – if there is one – will strike again, and it may be as much for his own sake, as for Cathy’s, that Alex must find the truth.

It is its two leads, Boyd and Franklin, that make The Third Secret most watchable. Even so, the direction is very good; Chrichton previously directed the excellent Dead of Night and the equally excellent, but entirely different, The Lavender Hill Mob, and would direct only one other film, in 1965, until 1988’s A Fish Called Wanda. In between, he occupied himself with plenty of tv work and light-hearted documentaries for business managers. In The Third Secret, he does a good job of showing the isolation of people, each imprisoned in a way by their private lives or by tragedies. The climax is suitably unsettling.

The story is adequate, though the psychological aspects – this is a psychological thriller if there ever was one – might not convince trained professionals. For laymen, it has the jargon and what in science-fiction would be termed techno-babble to put the narrative over. It is satisfyingly mysterious in its treatment of the suspects, though whether viewers will guess the truth may depend on how well-trained they are by their reading of Agatha Christie books.

The script is faulty. Though it delivers what it needs to, the dialogue is an example of characters who prefer to answer questions with questions, or with metaphor; their conversations often head off obliquely to the topic. The script can’t be called pretentious, I think, but rather the phrase ‘too clever by half’ comes to mind.

Even so, aside from the dialogue, the writing creates credible characters. Cathy may at first seem impossibly precocious, yet this too is believable: the only child of a renowned doctor, clearly observant and intelligent, she suddenly demonstrates a delightful immaturity when showing Alex around her house. Alex’s character may be seen as inconsistent. I don’t agree with that; he is sometimes warm, sometimes cold, even cruel. Some people are like that, and Alex has his own demons with which to contend.

There is some difficulty due to editing. Patricia Neal was to have been included in the movie, as a suspect. This accounts for Cathy saying that there are “five” suspects at one point, when the movie clearly indicates four. Neal’s part was cut out but in some versions, the original scene with the spoken number remains. (Yet in others, it was dubbed over with “four”!) This has no important bearing on the movie, however.

But The Third Secret should be seen for the performances of the leads. They aren’t Oscar-winning acts, but simply skillfully crafted and convincingly delivered. Boyd is not well known these days, unfortunately, perhaps the result of an early death, preceded by a decade of mediocre parts. Nonetheless, he was a highly capable actor.

Franklin was a superb child-actress who, like many in that category, failed to translate her early talent into later years. In her case, drugs or alcohol were not to blame, just a series of bad career moves that ended in a list of tv guest-shots. It may be that her abilities, once beyond adolescence, were no longer considered by casting directors to be outstanding among adult performers. But it is in such early films as The Third Secret that her astonishingly fine acting may be seen and judged.

Regardless of their later work, Boyd and Franklin have great chemistry here, made plausible by the story: Cathy’s father has recently perished and Boyd’s daughter is revealed also to have died. But, despite the age difference, they come across almost as friends, rather than a surrogate family. According to an interview some years after the film, and after Boyd’s death, Franklin stated that the two had indeed been good friends on the set, which comes across in the movie. This is not surprising, as Boyd seems to have been one of Hollywood’s nice guys, staying on good terms even with his ex-wives and girlfriends.

While it has its flaws - an overly robust screenplay being the chief - The Third Secret is an entertaining and involving mystery-drama, better than average. (It is also the cinematic debut of Judi Dench, playing an art-gallery assistant.)