Ministry of Fear
Encyclopedia
Ministry of Fear is a 1944
film noir
directed by Fritz Lang
. Based on a novel
by Graham Greene
, the film tells the story of a man just released from a mental asylum who finds himself caught up in an international spy ring in London during the Blitz
, pursued by foreign agents and incriminated for murder; all as a result of having visited a village fair and winning a cake after being given its weight by a fortune teller. The original music for the film was composed by Miklós Rózsa
and Victor Young
.
during the Blitz
, Stephen Neale (Milland) is released from Lembridge Asylum. While waiting for a train to London, Neale visits a village fête
hosted by the Mothers of Free Nations charity. He guesses the weight of a cake for a shilling, and is urged to go to the palm reader's tent to have his fortune told by Mrs. Bellane (Dyne), an older woman. He asks her to ignore the past and tell the future, which startles her. She cryptically tells him to take another guess at the weight of the cake at 4 pounds, 15 1/2 ounces. Neale does so and wins the prize. Then a young blond man hurries to the fête to see Mrs. Bellane. Afterward, people try to persuade Neale to give the cake to the blond man, but he refuses.
Neale departs Lembridge with only a blind man (Wyatt) sharing his compartment. Neale offers him some cake. Neale sees the blind man crumbling his portion. When the train stops during a Luftwaffe
air raid, Neale's companion turns out not to be blind after all. He strikes Neale with his cane, steals the cake, and flees, with Neale in pursuit. The man shoots at him from a ruined cottage, but is killed by a German bomb. Neale finds his revolver and continues on to London.
Neale decides to investigate the Mothers of Free Nations, and hires private detective George Rennit (Sanford) to help him. Neale meets Willi (Esmond) and Carla Hilfe (Reynolds), refugees from Nazi-occupied Austria who run the charity. Willi obligingly takes him to Mrs. Bellane's London mansion (followed by Rennit). Neale is shocked to discover that this Mrs. Bellane (Brooke) is a beautiful young medium
. She invites them to stay for her séance
. Among the other attendees are artist Martha Panteel (Field), psychiatrist Dr. Forrester (Napier), and Mr. Cost (Duryea), the blond man at the fête. After the lights are dimmed, a mysterious voice claims she was poisoned by Stephen, disconcerting Neale. Then a shot rings out - Cost is found dead with a gunshot to the head. Neale admits to having the blind man's gun. He flees with Willi's help.
Neale goes to Rennit's office, only to find it ransacked. He talks to Carla. An air raid forces the two to shelter in an Underground
station, where Neale reveals that he had planned to euthanizing
his terminally ill wife. He changed his mind, but she committed suicide anyway, using the poison he had bought. Due to the circumstances, Neale received a light sentence of two years at the asylum.
The next morning, Carla hides Neale at a friend's bookstore. Neale spots a book by Forrester, The Psychology of Nazism. Carla reveals that Forrester is one of her volunteers as well as a consultant for the Ministry of Home Security. Neale is convinced that Carla's organization is a front for Nazi spies. Carla checks if the people Neale suspects are charity volunteers. Almost all are. Carla tells Willi about her discovery, and admits that she loves Neale.
That afternoon, Neale goes to Panteel's flat, only to find Mrs. Bellane. The two verbally spar. He flees when Panteel returns and begins screaming for the police.
Later, Carla tells Neale what she has learned. The bookseller asks the couple to deliver some books to a "Mr. Macklin" since they are going out. When they arrive at the address, they discover that no one lives there. Suspicious, Neale opens the suitcase supposedly containing the books. It actually contains a bomb that explodes, but Neale and Carla escape unharmed.
Neale awakens in the hospital, the prisoner of Scotland Yard
Inspector Prentice (Waram). Neale persuades Prentice to search the bombed-out cottage for evidence. Neale finds a portion of the cake. Inside is a microfilm containing military secrets. Government officials insist that the top secret documents have only been taken out of a safe twice, the second time when Forrester's tailor, a man named Travers, was present. Neale recalls that the empty flat was leased in Travers' name.
Prentice and Neale go to the tailor's shop. Neale is shocked to discover that "Travers" is Cost. Cost pretends not to recognize Neale, and calls a client about an order for a suit. Then, seeing he is trapped, he commits suicide. When Neale dials the number he saw Cost use, Carla answers.
Neale slips away to see Carla. Willi emerges, armed with a pistol, and admits he is the head of the spy ring. Another copy of the microfilm is sewn into the suit he received from Cost. Carla throws an object, striking her brother's gun hand. The two men struggle, and Carla picks up the gun. When she refuses to hand it over to Willi, he tries to flee, but she shoots him dead. Forrester and several other Nazi agents chase Neale and Carla onto the roof. The shootout ends when Inspector Prentice arrives and kills the remaining Nazis.
Later, Carla and Neale drive in the country, planning their wedding. However, Neale is vehemently against having a wedding cake.
four years later, Ministry of Fear stands as a well-made, thoroughly gripping and intelligent example of film noir
."
His love interest, Anna Hilfe (Carla Hilfe in the film), appears in Fritz Lang's movie to be uninvolved in her brother's spy activities. In the novel, she does not shoot her brother dead, and there is no rooftop shootout with Nazi agents. Her brother Willi Hilfe, armed with a gun with a single bullet, commits suicide, in a railway station lavatory, when he cannot escape. Anna (Carla) must forever fear exposure as a spy, just as Rowe (Neale) fears exposure as a murderer. They go on together, lovers, but hardly the happy and carefree couple portrayed in the film: "They had to tread carefully for a lifetime, never speak without thinking twice ... They would never know what it was not to be afraid of being found out." That, not the spy pursuit of the film, is at the heart of Graham Greene's novel.
1944 in film
The year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released....
film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
directed by Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
. Based on a novel
The Ministry of Fear
The Ministry of Fear is a 1943 novel written by Graham Greene. It was first published in Britain by William Heinemann. It was made into the 1944 film Ministry of Fear, starring Ray Milland.It revolves around the relationship between Love and Fear...
by Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
, the film tells the story of a man just released from a mental asylum who finds himself caught up in an international spy ring in London during the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
, pursued by foreign agents and incriminated for murder; all as a result of having visited a village fair and winning a cake after being given its weight by a fortune teller. The original music for the film was composed by Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian-born composer trained in Germany , and active in France , England , and the United States , with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953...
and Victor Young
Victor Young
Victor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
.
Plot synopsis
In wartime EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
during the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
, Stephen Neale (Milland) is released from Lembridge Asylum. While waiting for a train to London, Neale visits a village fête
Fête
Fête is a French word meaning festival, celebration or party, which has passed into English as a label that may be given to certain events.-Description:It is widely used in England and Australia in the context of a village fête,...
hosted by the Mothers of Free Nations charity. He guesses the weight of a cake for a shilling, and is urged to go to the palm reader's tent to have his fortune told by Mrs. Bellane (Dyne), an older woman. He asks her to ignore the past and tell the future, which startles her. She cryptically tells him to take another guess at the weight of the cake at 4 pounds, 15 1/2 ounces. Neale does so and wins the prize. Then a young blond man hurries to the fête to see Mrs. Bellane. Afterward, people try to persuade Neale to give the cake to the blond man, but he refuses.
Neale departs Lembridge with only a blind man (Wyatt) sharing his compartment. Neale offers him some cake. Neale sees the blind man crumbling his portion. When the train stops during a Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
air raid, Neale's companion turns out not to be blind after all. He strikes Neale with his cane, steals the cake, and flees, with Neale in pursuit. The man shoots at him from a ruined cottage, but is killed by a German bomb. Neale finds his revolver and continues on to London.
Neale decides to investigate the Mothers of Free Nations, and hires private detective George Rennit (Sanford) to help him. Neale meets Willi (Esmond) and Carla Hilfe (Reynolds), refugees from Nazi-occupied Austria who run the charity. Willi obligingly takes him to Mrs. Bellane's London mansion (followed by Rennit). Neale is shocked to discover that this Mrs. Bellane (Brooke) is a beautiful young medium
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
. She invites them to stay for her séance
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
. Among the other attendees are artist Martha Panteel (Field), psychiatrist Dr. Forrester (Napier), and Mr. Cost (Duryea), the blond man at the fête. After the lights are dimmed, a mysterious voice claims she was poisoned by Stephen, disconcerting Neale. Then a shot rings out - Cost is found dead with a gunshot to the head. Neale admits to having the blind man's gun. He flees with Willi's help.
Neale goes to Rennit's office, only to find it ransacked. He talks to Carla. An air raid forces the two to shelter in an Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
station, where Neale reveals that he had planned to euthanizing
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
his terminally ill wife. He changed his mind, but she committed suicide anyway, using the poison he had bought. Due to the circumstances, Neale received a light sentence of two years at the asylum.
The next morning, Carla hides Neale at a friend's bookstore. Neale spots a book by Forrester, The Psychology of Nazism. Carla reveals that Forrester is one of her volunteers as well as a consultant for the Ministry of Home Security. Neale is convinced that Carla's organization is a front for Nazi spies. Carla checks if the people Neale suspects are charity volunteers. Almost all are. Carla tells Willi about her discovery, and admits that she loves Neale.
That afternoon, Neale goes to Panteel's flat, only to find Mrs. Bellane. The two verbally spar. He flees when Panteel returns and begins screaming for the police.
Later, Carla tells Neale what she has learned. The bookseller asks the couple to deliver some books to a "Mr. Macklin" since they are going out. When they arrive at the address, they discover that no one lives there. Suspicious, Neale opens the suitcase supposedly containing the books. It actually contains a bomb that explodes, but Neale and Carla escape unharmed.
Neale awakens in the hospital, the prisoner of Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
Inspector Prentice (Waram). Neale persuades Prentice to search the bombed-out cottage for evidence. Neale finds a portion of the cake. Inside is a microfilm containing military secrets. Government officials insist that the top secret documents have only been taken out of a safe twice, the second time when Forrester's tailor, a man named Travers, was present. Neale recalls that the empty flat was leased in Travers' name.
Prentice and Neale go to the tailor's shop. Neale is shocked to discover that "Travers" is Cost. Cost pretends not to recognize Neale, and calls a client about an order for a suit. Then, seeing he is trapped, he commits suicide. When Neale dials the number he saw Cost use, Carla answers.
Neale slips away to see Carla. Willi emerges, armed with a pistol, and admits he is the head of the spy ring. Another copy of the microfilm is sewn into the suit he received from Cost. Carla throws an object, striking her brother's gun hand. The two men struggle, and Carla picks up the gun. When she refuses to hand it over to Willi, he tries to flee, but she shoots him dead. Forrester and several other Nazi agents chase Neale and Carla onto the roof. The shootout ends when Inspector Prentice arrives and kills the remaining Nazis.
Later, Carla and Neale drive in the country, planning their wedding. However, Neale is vehemently against having a wedding cake.
Reaction
Judd Blaise, writing for Allmovie, states "While it does not reach the same level of timeless classic as Carol Reed's adaptation of Greene's The Third ManThe Third Man
The Third Man is a 1949 British film noir, directed by Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Many critics rank it as a masterpiece, particularly remembered for its atmospheric cinematography, performances, and unique musical score...
four years later, Ministry of Fear stands as a well-made, thoroughly gripping and intelligent example of film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
."
Comparison to the novel
Graham Greene's protagonist, Arthur Rowe (Stephen Neale in the film), is profoundly tormented with guilt for his having murdered his wife. In the movie, that is a simple mercy killing, an assisted suicide, and Neale holds his wife's hand as she passes away. In the book, Rowe slips the poison into his wife's milk -- "how queer it tastes," she says -- and leaves her to die alone. Despite the official finding of a mercy killing, he believes "that somewhere there was justice, and justice condemned him." He knows that the deed was not so much to end her suffering, as to end his own. This overwhelming sense of guilt, pervading the novel from beginning to end, is absent from the film.His love interest, Anna Hilfe (Carla Hilfe in the film), appears in Fritz Lang's movie to be uninvolved in her brother's spy activities. In the novel, she does not shoot her brother dead, and there is no rooftop shootout with Nazi agents. Her brother Willi Hilfe, armed with a gun with a single bullet, commits suicide, in a railway station lavatory, when he cannot escape. Anna (Carla) must forever fear exposure as a spy, just as Rowe (Neale) fears exposure as a murderer. They go on together, lovers, but hardly the happy and carefree couple portrayed in the film: "They had to tread carefully for a lifetime, never speak without thinking twice ... They would never know what it was not to be afraid of being found out." That, not the spy pursuit of the film, is at the heart of Graham Greene's novel.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Ray Milland Ray Milland Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting... |
Stephen Neale |
| Marjorie Reynolds Marjorie Reynolds Marjorie Reynolds was an American film actress. She appeared in more than 70 films.Born Marjorie Goodspeed, in Buhl, Idaho, as her parents made the cross-country trip from Maine to settle in California, she was featured as a child actressin silent films such as Scaramouche... |
Carla Hilfe |
| Carl Esmond Carl Esmond Carl Esmond was an Austrian stage actor, born in Vienna, Austria. His birth name was Willy Eichberger which he later changed to Charles Esmond and finally to Carl Esmond. Like many of his fellow actors, Esmond fled Nazi Germany to England during World War II. Esmond continued to appear on the... |
Willi Hilfe/Mr. Macklin |
| Hillary Brooke Hillary Brooke Hillary Brooke was an American film actress best known for her work in Abbott and Costello and Sherlock Holmes films... |
Mrs. Bellane #2 |
| Percy Waram | Inspector Prentice |
| Dan Duryea Dan Duryea Dan Duryea was an American actor, known for roles in film, stage and television.-Early life:Born and raised in White Plains, New York, Duryea graduated from White Plains Senior High School in 1924 and Cornell University in 1928. While at Cornell, Duryea was elected into the Sphinx Head Society... |
Cost/Travers |
| Alan Napier Alan Napier Alan William Napier-Clavering was an English actor, best known for portraying Alfred Pennyworth in the 1960s live-action Batman television series.-Early life and career:... |
Dr. Forrester |
| Erskine Sanford Erskine Sanford Erskine Sanford was an American actor in films from the late 1930s. A member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre company, he also appeared in several of Welles' films, most notably as the bumbling, perspiring newspaper editor Herbert Carter in Citizen Kane.Erskine Sanford lived the last decades of... |
George Rennit |
| Eustace Wyatt | Blind Man |
| Mary Field Mary Field Mary Field was an American film actress who primarily appeared in supporting roles.- Early life :She was born in New York City, New York. As a child she never knew her biological parents. During her infancy she was left outside the doors of a church with a note pinned to her saying that her name... |
Martha Panteel |
| Aminta Dyne | Mrs. Bellane #1 |