An alcoholic, blackmailing dentist called Feldon (Norman Bird) is visited by a sinister hooded stranger who forces him to rob his own victim, the businessman John Brent (Stewart Grainger). When he visits Feldon for a dental appointment which, in fact, acts as a cover for the pay offs, the dentist injects him with a truth serum in order to extract the combination to the safe at the shipping company where he works and makes impressions of the keys to his house and the vault so they can be duplicated without him being any the wiser. Feldon hands them over to his confederate and we learn that Brent's estranged wife, Nicole (Hara Harareet), is the mystery man's accomplice: her 'Secret Partner'. They have hatched a fool proof plan to steal £130,000 from the shipping company and frame Brent for the lot. The police led by Superintendent Hanbury (Bernard Lee) arrest him on his boat in France where he is holidaying, but he escapes and sets out to clear his name. But who is Nicole's mysterious secret partner? The interior designer, Clive Lang (John Lee), her new boyfriend, or Dr Rickford (Conrad Philips), who is clearly attracted to her? Or Brent's business associate Charles Standish (Hugh Burden) who is jealous because he has been passed over for promotion in the favour of him? Hanbury discovers that Brent has form for embezzlement and has since changed his name. However, he is not convinced that he has an open and shut case like his colleagues do and wants to retire from the force with the satisfaction of having solved it correctly...From the formidable producer-director team of Michael Relph and Basil Dearden, The Secret Partner was their attempt at a suspenser in the Hitchcock mould with a dash of film noir thrown in for good measure. It isn't entirely successful in the latter because Harareet's character isn't allowed enough scope in her involvement with the three men; all of whom the audience are invited to suspect may have been manipulated by her into doing the crime. In that respect it adds to the intrigue, but due to insufficient development the passions and emotional element are all but lost. Furthermore, Nicole is a femme fatale of a kind, but she repents her ways later on and, sadly, Harareet seems rather wooden in the part.However, The Secret Partner most certainly works as a satisfying thriller thanks to an excellent script by the reliable writing duo of David Pursall and Jack Seddon who throw in red herrings and plot twists aplenty to keep us guessing and guessing wrongly right up until the end when we finally learn the identity of Nicole's secret partner. I must confess it wasn't who I expected it to be. Basil Dearden's taut direction and Raymond Poulton's sharp editing combine to do justice to the appealing plot and sustain the tension throughout. Harry Waxman's b/w camera-work neatly captures the authentic London locations that add to the sense of place and mystery. Aside from Stewart Grainger as the hero who adds a touch of Hollywood glamour in a part straight out of Hitchcock, there is a wonderful supporting cast of first rate British actors to enjoy who all go through their paces with vigour.

Stewart Granger turns in a very good performance in this 1961 film about a heist and who committed it.This certainly could have been a Hitchcock film with all the turns and twists as well as the ironic ending.Haya Harareet, who was so good as Esther in "Ben-Hur" plays Granger's wife, who leaves him on purpose only to leave him for real when it looks like they've gotten away with the heist.Bernard Lee, M from James Bond, is effective as the chain-smoking retiring policeman who knows that he can't really get his finger on the situation.This film is really another Witness for the Prosecution without the murder as you will be fooled by the ending. Remember how Tyrone Power claimed he was innocent, ditto for Granger, but of course the latter lives, though unhappy in the end. You will not be unhappy with this film.

The plot creaks along slightly but worth seeing for the views of London docks as they were. The Bernard Lee character is also memorable for the number of cigarettes he smokes. In every scene he's in, he's either smoking, lighting up or lighting another cigarette from his previous one. Obviously a 60-a-day man. Older viewers will recall Conrad Phillips at the star of the long-running William Tell TV series in which he battled Willoughby Goddard who appears in the movie as the seedy hotel keeper. Stalwart British character actors Norman Bird, Hugh Burden and Lee Montague also shine, while Melissa Stibling was the wife of the film's director Basil Dearden

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.