Open Secret

1948 "The Pull-No-Punch drama of men chained together by hate!"
6.4| 1h8m| en
Details

A couple discovers that their friend has gone missing. Their investigation leads them to believe that anti-semites are behind the disappearance.

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Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
ShangLuda Admirable film.
Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
boblipton The opening shot is an underlit traveling crane shot, followed by an upward-tilting Dutch angle of a series of backlit faces pronouncing "Guilty." It's an open secret this film was released in 1947, when every mystery was a film noir and every decent little guy faced a faceless conspiracy.Charles Waldron Jr. tells his landlady that his old friend, John Ireland and his new bride, Jane Randolph, will be staying with him a few days. Then he hides a roll of film in his drawer and goes out. Eventually his houseguests notice he's gone and call in police sergeant Sheldon Leonard and gradually get entangled in a web of....It's not the most subtly plotted of film noirs, and there's little mystery about what sort of nasty people are behind the evil doings, but it's certainly beautifully shot by horror-movie specialist George Robinson, and well performed by all hands. Director John Reinhardt was an Austrian actor who had switched to directing Spanish language movies for Fox in the early 1930s.
JohnHowardReid John Ireland was an actor with a moderate amount of charisma, who always knew his lines and gave his directors no trouble at all. Although he was a natural for TV and played many roles, including John Hunter in 39 episodes of "The Cheaters", Jeff Colby in 8 episodes of "Rawhide", and Shack Shackelford in 13 episodes of "Cassie & Co.", he never became a household word. In movies, his best role was as Jack Burden in All the King's Men (1949) for which he should have won that year's award for Best Supporting Actor, but unaccountably lost out to Dean Jagger in Twelve O'Clock High. Earlier in 1949, Ireland played the title role of Bob Ford in I Shot Jesse James. He continued the James association by playing the lead in The Return of Jesse James (1950), a minor film about a drifter who adopted the James name. In 1951, he starred in The Basketball Fix and The Bushwackers. In 1952 he was the lead in Hurricane Smith. So it's no surprise to find him as the star of our 1948 "B" movie, Open Secret, even though he does little with the role and is often upstaged by the support cast, particularly Anne O'Neal, here in the first of her fifteen movie appearances for 1948. In fact, Miss O'Neal's inquisitive landlady does tend to throw the whole movie off balance and she certainly creams our nominal heroine, Jane Randolph. We would also have liked to have seen more of some of the other support players, particularly Roman Bohnen and Sheldon Leonard. However, the movie does come to an effective action climax, well staged by director John Reinhardt—although the lesson or the moral does seem to be a bit exaggerated and over the top. Admittedly, Gentleman's Agreement (1947) erred in the opposite direction and was too namby-pamby in its approach to anti-Jewish prejudice, but I still thought the police response in an Open Secret situation would have been far more active, particularly as the movie seems to go out of its way to praise the police effort and make excuses for their lack of involvement. Available on a very good Alpha DVD.
MartinHafer 1947 saw the debut of the film "Gentleman's Agreement" in which Gregory Peck pretended to be Jewish in order to feel what it's like to be a Jew in America. Naturally, he experiences some discrimination but it's mostly very proper ('nice' anti-Semitism) and the leading man quite handsome. It was NOT particularly gritty and I always thought the film was amazingly tame...and a bit overdone. Here, a year later, a low-budget studio had decided to do a film like "Gentleman's Agreement"--but with more normal looking folks (no handsome Peck or John Garfield here) and in a more working-class neighborhood. And, in addition, the level of hate was ratcheted up...a lot. In fact, in this sick little town, a local hidden hate group has gone so far as kill Jews! John Ireland infiltrates this group of sickies and the film lacks the pretty polish but also seems a bit more gutsy and violent. Oddly, despite the publicity for the earlier film and critical acclaim, I prefer "Open Secret" as it is much more exciting and more like a variation on film noir. A great film? No...but it certainly is interesting and the problems don't seem so mundane as those in the Gregory Peck film. As a result, it shows a seedier and uglier side to ethnic hatred.
Peter22060 In the late forties, theatre owners such as Harry Brandt made some feature films such as OPEN SECRET. The cast has some well known character actors, and the plot line is very interesting. However, two films with Humphrey Bogart had more dynamic punch to them that carries the same message through to today. BLACK LEGION is the premiere film in exposing the hate and venom of individuals who misunderstand the basics of the "American Way". ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT brings the message of Nazis and anti-semitism in the United States to a slightly less strong level. OPEN SECRET would be considered an attempt to emulate the work shown in the two above films. Viewed today, it looks like a low budget "B" movie.