The Third Secret (1964)
The Third Secret is a 1964 British CinemaScope neo-noir psychological mystery thriller film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Richard Attenborough. The screenplay by Robert L. Joseph focuses on an American newscaster who investigates the mysterious death of his psychoanalyst. According to the film, there are three kinds of secrets; the first, you keep from others; the second, you keep from yourself, and the third is the truth.
Director – Charles Crichton
Writer – Robert L. Joseph
Cast –
Stephen Boyd as Alex Stedman
Jack Hawkins as Sir Frederick Belline
Richard Attenborough as Alfred Price-Gorham
Diane Cilento as Anne Tanner
Pamela Franklin as Catherine Whitset
Paul Rogers as Dr. Milton Gillen
Alan Webb as Alden Hoving
Rachel Kempson as Mildred Hoving
Peter Sallis as Lawrence Jacks
Patience Collier as Mrs. Pelton
Freda Jackson as Mrs. Bales
Judi Dench as Miss Humphries
Peter Copley as Dr. Leo Whitset
Nigel Davenport as Lew Harding
Charles Lloyd-Pack as Dermot McHenry
Barbara Hicks as Police Secretary
Ronald Leigh-Hunt as Police Officer (as Ronald Leigh Hunt)
Geoffrey Adams as Floor Manager
James Maxwell as Mark
Gerald Case as Mr. Bickes
Sarah Brackett as Nurse
Neal Arden as Mr. Morgan
Watch “The Third Secret” (1964)
Plot
Prominent London psychoanalyst Dr. Leo Whitset is discovered injured from a gunshot wound in his home by his housekeeper, and as he lies dying he whispers, “blame no one but me”. These words lead the coroner to rule the death a suicide, a verdict questioned by one of Dr. Whitset’s patients, Alex Stedman, a successful American news commentator for British television who has been in therapy since the death of his wife and daughter. The dead man’s 14 year-old daughter Catherine is certain he was murdered, and she enlists Alex’s aid in finding the killer to preserve her father’s reputation.
Catherine provides Alex with the names of three other patients. Sir Frederick Belline is a respected judge, Alfred Price-Gorham runs a prestigious art gallery with his assistant Miss Humphries, and Anne Tanner is a corporate secretary. As Alex investigates their backgrounds, he discovers each of them, like himself, harbours a secret known only by the murdered man. Hoping to find more clues, Alex goes to the doctor’s country home to search his files. There, he learns Catherine was under her father’s care, and when he confronts her, she admits she killed the doctor when he threatened to send her to an institution to be treated for paranoid schizophrenia. While re-enacting the crime, Catherine stabs Alex and consequently she is confined to a psychiatric hospital. Recovered from his wounds, Alex visits her and promises to stay in touch. The third secret the doctor had hidden from himself was the seriousness of his daughter’s illness, which made him delay committing her to a mental institution.