Those were the days,I suppose,when we still had some secrets worth stealing.Before we found out that most of the Soviet submarine fleet was unserviceable due to lack of spares,the Red Army would have had to roar into Berlin on bicycles because their tanks were rusting away and their airforce would fallout of the sky because of their non-existent maintenance programme.Of course it wouldn't have done for us to have known that because we might have wondered why the Defence Budget had to be increased exponentially every year,and heaven knows where that might have led to...more money on education and health possibly,and that would never do. What a litany of magic names "Ring of spies" brings to mind.Vassal the Admiralty clerk blackmailed because of his homosexuality,Col.Ivanov the Russian spy who shared a mistress with an English Cabinet Minister,Anthony Blunt,Keeper of the Queen's pictures,those nice Krogers,Gordon Lonsdale, Harry Houghton and Bunty Gee.....traitors obsessed with sex or money or both.How many deaths were caused by their treachery? Houghton and Gee are the focal points of this film.She apparently a lonely and repressed spinster,he a bitter failure with a grudge against his employers.It's good to see Mr Bernard Lee stretch himself out of his usual "nice kind bloke" comfort zone and play a rather repellent character who draws the unfortunate Miss Gee into a honey trap. Miss Margaret Tyzack makes Miss Gee sympathetic if dim.Mr William Sylvester,a great favourite in the British "B" movie pantheon is equally good as Gordon Lonsdale.The mouse-like Krogers ran the spy ring from their bungalow in Ruislip.But for their duplicity and ruthlessness they could almost belong in an Ealing comedy. Mr Robert Tronson was borrowed from TV to direct and did a very fine job,there is hardly an extraneous scene and the film is very sharply put together.This was the time when some British second features were made with more care and attention than the "big" movies they preceded.They provided gainful employment for actors and technicians who would otherwise be resting between American gigs.Regular moviegoers of the time developed a real affection for the actors who regularly turned up in them,a sussurus of suppressed delight going through the audience at the appearance of a particular favourite.Many of us mourned their demise."Ring of Spies" is a fine example of a sadly-missed genre.
Review of Ring of Treason
