The Master Plan (1954 film)

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The Master Plan
"The Master Plan" (film).jpg
Directed by Cy Endfield
Screenplay byCy Endfield
Based onOperation North Star
by Harald Bratt
Produced byCharles Leeds
Steven Pallos
Starring Norman Wooland
Tilda Thamar
Wayne Morris
CinematographyJonah Jones
Edited by Jim Connock
Production
company
Gibraltar Films
Distributed byGrand National Pictures
Release date
  • 15 August 1954 (1954-08-15)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Master Plan is a 1954 British second feature [1] espionage thriller film directed by Cy Endfield and starring Norman Wooland, Tilda Thamar and Wayne Morris. [2] It was based on the teleplay Operation North Star by Harald Bratt.

Contents

Plot

Following the Second World War, an American army officer stationed in West Germany is assigned with keeping classified information away from the Communists. Unfortunately, enemy agents know that he suffers from sudden black-outs and use this to hypnotise him, and make it appear that he is a traitor.

Cast

Production

The filmwas made at Southall Studios with sets designed by the art director Scott MacGregor.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Unpretentious East-West espionage story in a continental setting. The locale and atmosphere are fairly convincing and the plot is adequately sustained, but credibility is ignored towards the end, when a prowler is loose in the well-guarded grounds and, although armed with a rifle with telescopic sights, fails to kill at twenty yards range." [3]

Kine Weekly wrote: "The picture, which, incidentally, far from flatters Military Intelligence, is little but talk for the first hour. Wayne Morris, sound as the roughly handled Tom, Norman Wooland, all agog as Cleaver, and Tilda Thamar, Mary Mackenzie and Marjorie Stewart, suitably contrasted as the women, try to keep the conversation clear and crisp, but it is only during the last 20 minutes that sparks fly. The denouement is, however, first rate theatre and gets the headline hokum over." [4]

TV Guide wrote, "the intriguing story suffers from inefficient production techniques." [5]

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References

  1. ↑ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 126. ISBN   978-1-8445-7319-6.
  2. ↑ "The Master Plan". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  3. ↑ "The Master Plan". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 21 (240): 134. 1 January 1954 – via ProQuest.
  4. ↑ "The Master Plan". Kine Weekly . 448 (2455): 18. 15 July 1954 – via ProQuest.
  5. ↑ "The Master Plan Review". tvguide.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.


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