Review of Betrayed

I was initially prepared to give this a flat 6, but changed to a light 7 after watching. It's a visually lush film, but the the TCM copy was a bit fuzzy, so I suspect it's hard to get a clean print of this 1954 flick. It's one of the few films I review where I wish it was longer. It needs about ten more minutes to better deepen the doubt and mystery of who the real mole was. It was too light on developing the intrigue, in a movie where intrigue is the central character. None of the actors' characters is fleshed out as they should be. They're all good enough, considering their star glamor status at the time.

The combat and shooting sequences are awkward and almost insulting to modern eyes, but for 1954, that was de rigeur. Don't expect a shred of violence-laced tension. That's not this movie's strong suit.

This is an above-average story, that could be told better by a remake. Would be a cracking limited series on netflix or amazon.