Ministry of Fear
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Ministry of Fear | |
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VHS cover of Ministry of Fear |
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Directed by | Fritz Lang |
Written by | Graham Greene (novel The Ministry of Fear: an entertainment) Seton I. Miller (screenplay) |
Starring | Ray Milland Marjorie Reynolds Carl Esmond Hillary Brooke |
Music by | Victor Young |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date(s) | October 16, 1944 (U.S. release) |
Running time | 86 min |
Language | English |
IMDb profile |
The Ministry of Fear is a Graham Greene 1943 novel and a black-and-white 1944 film directed by Fritz Lang. The film, based on the novel, tells the story of a man who finds himself caught up in an international spy ring, in London during the Blitz. It all starts after he guesses the weight of a cake at a fair and ends up becoming the owner of secret microfilm hidden inside.
The film has an elaborate plot and features a style of film making, a specialty of director Fritz Lang, that would later be classified as film noir. The original music for the film was composed by Miklós Rózsa and Victor Young.
[edit] Reaction
Judd Blaise, writing for All Movie Guide, states "While it does not reach the same level of timeless classic as Carol Reed's adaptation of Greene's The Third Man four years later, Ministry of Fear stands as a well-made, thoroughly gripping and intelligent example of film noir." [1]
[edit] Featured cast
Actor | Role |
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Ray Milland | Stephen Neale |
Marjorie Reynolds | Carla Hilfe |
Carl Esmond | Willi Hilfe/Mr. Macklin |
Hillary Brooke | the second Mrs. Bellane |
Percy Waram | Inspector Prentice |
Dan Duryea | Cost/Travers |
Alan Napier | Dr. Forrester |
[edit] External links
- Ministry of Fear at the Internet Movie Database
- The Films of Fritz Lang
- Film Noir of the Week review