BRADFORD DILLMAN & SUZY PARKER IN 'CIRCLE OF DECEPTION'

Title: CIRCLE OF DECEPTION Year: 1960 Rating: ***

Alternate titles for the British WWII Thriller CIRCLE OF DECEPTION starring two imported and thereafter married American actors Bradford Dillman and Suzy Parker, could be He Was Expendable or Hell Is For Cowards as the deliberately telegraphed twist has British Intel chief Harry Andrews seeking the wrong man for the job, who must fold under questioning/torture with bogus information that he thinks is right...

In the intentionally undependable role is Bradford Dillman, newly famous for brilliantly playing a murderous brat in COMPULSION, seeming a bit too young here, his uniform loose on a skinny frame while Parker, a former model turned actress ala THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, is mostly relied upon for looks and exposition while predictably falling in love with the sympathetic, vulnerable pawn...

Suzy Parker in CIRCLE OF DECEPTION

Leading to behind-enemy-lines espionage that, knowing the entire mission's primed to fail, spends too much time on otherwise unnecessary spy business, winding up the anticipated Nazi-Torture-Exploitation during the rushed third act...

Yet here's where Dillman finally gets some worthwhile company in Robert Stephens who, despite playing the good-cop interrogating Nazi with a classy British accent, makes the already stagey dialogue more intriguing and, originally based on an hour-long television movie, CIRCLE OF DECEPTION seems more episodically-inclined than cinematic. 

Bradford Dillman in CIRCLE OF DECEPTION

Bradford Dillman in CIRCLE OF DECEPTION

Suzy Parker in CIRCLE OF DECEPTION

Robert Stephens in CIRCLE OF DECEPTION

Poster for CIRCLE OF DECEPTION