'High Treason'

In High Treason, the J. Arthur Rank people examine the problem of Communist sabotage in England and conclude that as long as Scotland Yard employs cool, resourceful investigators there is no cause for alarm. It is a solid suspense job which mounts to a fine climax, then closes with a wonderful burst of thin-lipped realism.

Not a single actor or actress of any considerable reputation is involved in the goings-on, which goes to show that ordinary people behaving quite naturally can produce a move excellently acted all the way through, even down to the smallest character role. If there is a central figure, he is the misguided youth--the son of a naval hero who "went down with the Athenia"--duped into the service of the party. He dies tapping out a wireless message which leads to the apprehension of his former associates.

So well is the squad of saboteurs organized that not until they are forced together by the police do the various members realize who their comrades are. Thus, when the wireless operator forsakes the cause, he takes his problem to his local M.P., unaware that the latter is mixed up too.

The producers take advantage of this setup to create suspense. Almost in the manner of a Saturday afternoon serial story, the action flits about different situations as Commander Brennan and his men track down the squad that has been engaged in a series of explosions. No dialogue is wasted, no character is without a function.

The movie manages to take a few swipes at the communist reasoning, taking issue with a radical young woman's idea that voting will never produce a better world, that people must actively fight for it. In the end, the representatives of the Yard shoot it out with the thugs in a power plant. This causes several temporary blackouts, during which Commander Brennan remarks, "Once the people have known light they will never tolerate darkness."

And in the final fadeaway, Brennan walks home in the early London morning while the polished voice of the BBC tells of the electric company apologizing for the power failure of the night before.