cult film freak: STEWART GRANGER WITH BERNARD LEE IN 'THE SECRET PARTNER'

Granger, Lee & Harareet Year: 1963 Rating: ****

Hybrid of THE THIRD MAN where steely London never looked so menacing with science-fiction/horror with the title menace's mask and spooky voice-box, and who exactly THE SECRET PARTNER is can't be entirely figured in this always-guessing mystery thriller since two people are being blackmailed including an initially blackmailing dentist and Stewart Granger, so enigmatic he can't be altogether trusted despite portraying the victimized lead...

There's a doomed underworld vibe despite almost equal screen time spent in a bright police station with token inspector Bernard Lee, figuring things along with both the audience and Granger himself... as this is is a con artist story despite seeming like a revenge against a man who's supposedly a former one. The cast also includes lovely yet tough Haya Harareet as Granger's supposedly betrayed wife who seems anything but a victim, and the shifty Peter Lorre-like dentist played by a quirky Norman Bird. As in most British b-movies, the side-characters and location... from industrial London factories, bleak city streets and an immense shipyard... stands out above the mainline, which in itself is always shifting, twisty and unpredictable.