Review of Circle of Deception

I recorded this film from Talking Pictures as a time-filler expecting a routine wartime thriller where an agent led the French Resistance on raids against the Nazis, fell in love, got betrayed by a jealous rival etc. Instead, I got a downbeat story of bravery and betrayal, with a twenty minute portrayal of a man undergoing the most harrowing torture. For a 1960 film this was quite graphic with flogging, electric shocks and almost unwatchable waterboarding. He film opens with the arrest of several members of the French Resistance, including their radio man. However, the local priest also has a radio and tips off British Intelligence. The plan was to send an agent to organise raids in the Marignan area to cause the Nazis to concentrate troops there while the invasion took place in Normandy. Cynical Captain Rawson realises that the changed situation can still be used to advantage by sending an agent who believes the invasion WILL take place around Marignan and who will crack under interrogation. Lt Raine is selected due to his psychological profile and is sent to meet a fake contact. He realises something is wrong but is captured anyway. Robert Stephens (what an actor) is Kapitan Stein whose pleasant outward nature conceals a very unpleasant disposition. When Raine refuses to talk he is turned over to the Gestapo for brutal interrogation. His dud suicide pill does not give him his longed for release and he gives in. Achieving the required result. In the meantime the Resistance attack Gestapo HQ to release their own people and free Raine in the process. Though awarded a medal he disappears to hide his shame After the war Lucy, PA to Rawson, tracks him down and reveals how he was duped and has nothing to reproach himself for. Though the ending was a little fairy tale, this is a unusual film for the time and possibly heralded the beginning of the more realistic portrayal of the dirty and cynical business of war. Where your friends could be just as treacherous as your enemies, the end is always supposed to justify the means, and you wonder just who is in the right. Small point. Watch out for a brief appearance by Richard Marner as a German officer, looking very much like Colonel Von Strohm, his role in Allo Allo.