Passport to Treason

Last updated
Passport to Treason
Passport to Treason.jpg
Directed by
Screenplay by
Based onnovel by Paddy Manning O'Brine
Produced byRobert S. Baker
Starring
Cinematography Monty Berman
Edited by Henry Richardson
Music by Stanley Black
Production
company
Mid-Century Film Productions
Distributed by Eros Films (UK)
Release date
  • June 1956 (1956-06)(UK)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
Language English

Passport to Treason is a 1956 British second feature [1] mystery thriller directed by Robert S. Baker and starring Rod Cameron, Lois Maxwell, and Clifford Evans. [2] It was written by Kenneth R. Hayles and Norman Hudis, based on the Manning O'Brine novel of the same name. [3] [4]

Contents

Plot

After the death of a friend, private investigator Mike O'Kelly investigates an organisation that claims to be working for world peace, but turns out to be a front for a crime syndicate.

Cast

Critical reception

Monthly Film Bulletin said "Opening with the private detective wandering through a London fog, this thriller goes on to introduce the corpse (stabbed) clutching the book with a vital clue, the private nursing home equipped with a good stock of "truth drug," the equivocally placed heroine, and the gun battle in a dockside warehouse. Such classic situations, here presented earnestly but humourlessly, make up a fairly routine melodrama." [5]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Stock melodramatic situations straighforwardly presented make this a watchable support." [6]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Resolute thriller reminiscent of the late 1930s." [7]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "Western star Rod Cameron should never have packed his passport to play the private eye in this dire British B-feature with its sub-Hitchcockian plot about neo-fascists in London concealing their activities within an organisation for world peace. A better actor than granite-jawed Cameron might have breathed some life into the line-up of hackneyed situations." [8]

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References

  1. ↑ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 89. ISBN   978-1-8445-7319-6.
  2. ↑ "Hi Gang!". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  3. ↑ "Passport to Treason (1955) - Robert S. Baker | Cast and Crew | AllMovie" – via www.allmovie.com.
  4. ↑ Goble, Alan (September 8, 2011). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN   9783110951943 – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ "Passport to Treason". Monthly Film Bulletin . 23 (264): 118. 1956 – via ProQuest.
  6. ↑ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 784. ISBN   0586088946.
  7. ↑ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 360. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.
  8. ↑ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 707. ISBN   9780992936440.


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