Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

christopher-underwood I enjoyed this a lot. It is a bit dialogue heavy but as long as the dialogue is as good as this is, for most of the time, I have no problem with that and there is sufficient and most effective visual bravura where needed. Very English, it has to be said, and I suppose very much of the cinema of the early 60s. Judi Dench has a small part and would have a much larger part the following year, in 'Four in the Morning' set, funnily enough along pretty much the same stretch of the Thames, at Strand-on-the-Green, between Kew Bridge and Chiswick. The credits appear over a shot of the Thames at Richmond but this would be poetic license rather than a mistake. Stephen Boyd is the main male lead and he does a difficult job well as we ponder the death of an eminent psychiatrist when his daughter insists that her father would not have killed himself. Pamela Franklin plays the fourteen year old who begins to make Boyd even consider he might have killed the doctor before the film races to a rousing conclusion. She plays her role most effectively and will be remembered as the young girl from the earlier, The Innocents. Quiet, considered, intelligent film making, little seen today. Great b/w cinematography.

MartinHafer This is a far from perfect film and I am glad I stuck with it, as up until late in the movie I felt a little bored. That's because the film moves very slowly and is way too talky. So, bear with the glacial pace and you'll most likely enjoy the film overall.A psychiatrist is found dying by his housekeeper. He's babbling incoherently and based on what he says and the type of gunshot he's received, the police rule his death a suicide. However, his young daughter (Pamela Franklin) insists that he was murdered and enlists Stephen Boyd to help her investigate--though this aspect of the film was very hard to believe. Through the course of the film, Boyd tracks down the doctor's patients until he ultimately discovers the perpetrator in a nice twist. While the psychiatric aspects of the film are a bit dubious and, as I said before, it's SLOW, the film ultimately is interesting if flawed. Worth seeing but certainly NOT a film to rush to see.A few notes. First, I noticed someone saying that Boyd was well-cast. This is true if her were playing an Irishman who is trying (in vain) to put on an American accent! The fact is to most Americans watching, they can spot his accent as a phony. Also, speaking of voices, it's sad to hear Jack Hawkins in the film as his voice is very gruff compared to his earlier films. That is because he was suffering from throat cancer. It would soon be diagnosed and his larynx would be removed. In an interesting twist, he was so appreciated as an actor (and as a person) that he continued acting and his voice was dubbed in all these post-surgery films. Hawkins voice Boyd

theowinthrop It was not that Stephen Boyd was a second stringer performer. He did do splendidly in those films that were written well, such as "Messala" in "Ben-Hur", or as the Irish agent for the Nazis in "The Man Who Never Was". He is an admirable foil for Tyrone Power in "Abandon Ship!" But much of his work was in second rate films. His last movie was called "Graf Dracula", and he played the Count.But in 1964 he turned in what may have been his saddest, most poignant performance as "Alex Stedman". He is one of several patients being treated by a psychiatrist named Dr. Whitset. He is roused by the police one day - his psychiatrist was murdered. The patients of Dr. Whitset are the ones who are the suspects, because in his private files Whitset mentions one of them as having a dangerous twist of their personality. The ill-fated Doctor felt he could control this twist and save the patient. The problem is that the patient remains unnamed, so the Doctor's patients are all under suspicion.They are a mixed bag and Stedman begins his own investigation. He does this because he discovers the Doctor had a daughter named Catherine (Pamela Franklin) who is apparently upset but not letting out her emotions. They form a close attachment, and Stedman discusses his investigations with her. He sees (among others) a high court justice ( Jack Hawkins); a woman's clothing dealer (Richard Attenborough); and Diane Cilento. In the end he gradually finds out who was the killer - and it destroys the stability he has been creating by his investigation. A little knowledge proves dangerous to Boyd in more than one way. The conclusion of this, his best movie role, is unforgettably sad and bleak.

Deusvolt Among murder thrillers involving psychopaths, I have more empathy for this movie than for the blood curdling Psycho of Hitchcock which elicits disgust rather than sympathy. Somehow, despite its somber black and white Zone 5 photography, The Third Secret seems romantic and not only because of the delicate vulnerability of the beautiful Catherine (portrayed by Franklin) and the caring gentlemanliness of Alex (Stephen Boyd) but also because of the tone and mood emanating from the locations and sets.It is a very quiet film with none of the scary music and jarring sound effects widely used in this genre. But the seemingly calm voices of the main characters somehow carry you along towards a crescendo of excitement and terror.If you liked Pamela Franklin as a little girl in the Innocents, you'll like her even better as a teenager in this film.It seems obvious that the murderer of Catherine's father, the psychiatrist, was one of his patients. But which one? Since he treated severely disturbed patients, most of them are likely suspects even Alex (Boyd). To discover the murderer, you must understand the nature of the third secret.And what is the third secret? Spoiler ahead: The first secret is the secret you share with others. The second secret is the secret you keep only to yourself. And the third secret? Well, that's the secret!