Review of Circle of Danger

"Circle of danger" is a quality production all around. I watched the movie from the recent 2024 StudioCanal release of the movie on Blu-ray, where the cinematography glistens, especially the scenes of the salvage operation. Ray Milland's character heads to the United Kingdom after finally scoring a big salvage haul of tungsten from a cargo ship sunk off Tampa, Florida. With the $30,000 he makes from his quick sale to the boat captain of his salvage share, he travels from the lowlands of London to the Highlands of Scotland to discover how his brother died in a commando raid in occupied Europe WWII; his brother being the only casualty of the raid. This raid is is where I have a problem with the movie. The raid is never shown in flashback; other characters who were there describe what happened. But what really happened? The explanation at the end by the commander of the raid and another surviving witness (Marius Goring playing a former commando turned fey choreographer) seems contrived. The movie's screenplay was written by Philip MacDonald, who also wrote the novel "White Heather," the basis of the screenplay. That novel is MIA on the Internet, as far as my search went. In 1950 England, where the story takes place and when the film was made, WWII was a recent memory. Food rationing was still in force for meat and life was hard for many from the war's physical damage and damage to the British economy. For me, the movie's ending rings false. The ending of "Circle of Danger" smacks of self-censorship, to avoid showing stuff, even in a fictional incident, that possibly puts the British war effort in a bad light. Too bad the movie's budget apparently did not allow for filming that ill-fated commando raid, which could have better shown what happened.