MARIO GAUCI After a distinguished 15-year service for British cinema, director Charles Crichton (like several of his contemporaries) defected to TV at the start of the 1960s and only made the occasional feature film thereafter – the most notable of which were this star-studded psychological thriller and his Oscar-nominated swan song, A FISH CALLED WANDA (1988). Irish actor-turned-Hollywood star Stephen Boyd plays the lead, an expatriate American newsman, who is engaged by precocious teenager Pamela Franklin to delve further into the mystery surrounding the would-be suicide of her celebrity psychiatrist father. She firmly believes that he was murdered by one of his very exclusive clientèle and pinpoints knighted Judge Jack Hawkins, mousy art dealer Richard Attenborough (who has a very young Judi Dench for his assistant) and insecure secretary Diane Cilento as the main suspects; a fourth was initially to have been played by Patricia Neal but her entire subplot was dropped prior to the film's release! After some initial trepidation (he does not want it known that he was also being treated by the dead psychiatrist) and anguish (feeling betrayed by the psychiatrist for abandoning him, he demolishes the latter's office in front of his daughter's very eyes!), Boyd approaches the 3 ex-patients who, understandably, are unwilling, unable or just too distraught (Cilento herself commits suicide after realizing the real reason why Boyd had slept with her) to be of any real use to him in the investigation. Consequently, when all available avenues seem to have led to a dead end, Boyd becomes cognizant of the possibility that the truth might be much closer to home than he at first suspected. Indeed, Franklin seems inexplicably hostile to her guardians (Rachel Kempson and Alan Webb) and bonds with Boyd instead through a game of 'complete the quotation' scribbled on walls (which she used to play with her late father). Co-written by its producer Robert L. Joseph, the film is, perhaps necessarily given the subject, full of pretentious chat but is also cleverly decked out with a Freudian dream sequence and the afore-mentioned starry cameos…which, actually, makes Pamela Franklin's outstanding performance all the more remarkable an achievement. Besides, in view of how the plot eventually works out, it is hard not to presume the influence of Orson Welles' fascinating MR. ARKADIN aka CONFIDENTIAL REPORT (1955) or the anticipation of Richard Rush's much-maligned COLOR OF NIGHT (1994)...

rockandrollhellcat Warning! Contains spoiler! I saw this movie on television many years ago. Being a Pamela Franklin fan, I just had to watch it. It was a very good movie with a wonderful surprise ending! Very suspenseful. The entire cast is great. It's a very unusual story. I can't get the scene of Ms. Franklin trying to stab Steven Boyd with a pair of scissors out of my head! Reminds me of the scene where she kills Dirk Bogard with a fire poker in "Our Mother's House." Pamela has done a lot of interesting film roles that are different from the norm. This is one of them and definitely worth seeing. I hope they will release this on DVD one day soon!

Deusvolt Among murder thrillers involving psychopaths, I have more empathy for this movie than for the blood curdling Psycho of Hitchcock which elicits disgust rather than sympathy. Somehow, despite its somber black and white Zone 5 photography, The Third Secret seems romantic and not only because of the delicate vulnerability of the beautiful Catherine (portrayed by Franklin) and the caring gentlemanliness of Alex (Stephen Boyd) but also because of the tone and mood emanating from the locations and sets.It is a very quiet film with none of the scary music and jarring sound effects widely used in this genre. But the seemingly calm voices of the main characters somehow carry you along towards a crescendo of excitement and terror.If you liked Pamela Franklin as a little girl in the Innocents, you'll like her even better as a teenager in this film.It seems obvious that the murderer of Catherine's father, the psychiatrist, was one of his patients. But which one? Since he treated severely disturbed patients, most of them are likely suspects even Alex (Boyd). To discover the murderer, you must understand the nature of the third secret.And what is the third secret? Spoiler ahead: The first secret is the secret you share with others. The second secret is the secret you keep only to yourself. And the third secret? Well, that's the secret!

leopardgirl99 This is an excellent movie featuring actor Stephen Boyd who once again exhibited his ability to perform well with a mediocre script. The movie has a great story line and good suspense. This is one of Boyd's best performances. The actor made about 50 movies.The cast was superb and it tells the story of a psychiatrist and the few patients he had before he is murdered at the beginning of the movie. The patients are all successful and relatively normal people that on the surface seem to fit into society, but definitely have neurotic tendencies with self-esteem issues at best.Boyd's character is that of a cynical American news reporter stationed in England where he mocks his own country-men on TV and his character is brilliant.