The John Williams Web Pages
		Compositions: Films
		The Secret Ways
The Secret Ways The Film | The Music Audio | Video | Sheet Music References | Links Compositions: Films Previous: I Passed for White Next: Bachelor Flat Chronological filmography Alphabetical filmography Television films Miscellanea		The Film Release date: May 24, 1961 Studio: Universal International Pictures Running time: 112 minutes Director: Phil Karlson Cast: Richard Widmark, Sonja Ziemann, Charles Regnier, Walter Rilla, Howard Vernon, Senta Berger, Heinz Moog, Hubert von Meryerinck, Oskar Wegrostek, Stefan Schnabel, Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel, Helmuth Janatsch, Walter Wilz, Raoul Retzer Technical information: mono, black and white Produced by star Richard Widmark and scripted by his wife, Jean Hazlewood (from an Alistair MacLean novel of the same name), The Secret Ways is a standard cold war cloak-and-dagger melodrama set in Vienna and Budapest (and filmed on location in Austria).
		Michael Reynolds (Widmark) is a mercenary adverturer who is persuaded to take an assignment to locate Jansci (Rilla), a famed scientist in Budapest, and return him safely to Vienna. He first locates Jansci's daughter Julia (Ziemann), who insists on accompanying Reynolds back to Budapest. They manage to cross the border, masquerading as a newspaper reporter and his secretary, and are welcomed into a strange hotel, but kept under close watch. They both sneak out and eventually end up at Jansci's hideaway where Reynolds is persuaded to return Julia to the West. After returning to the hotel, a dying man warns Reynolds one of their confidants has been arrested and that they are in danger. Reynolds and Julia manage to escape, evading capture in a nearby church, and return to the hideaway, where Julia, Jansci and Reynolds are all captured and taken to prison. Here they are interrogated and tortured; just as they are about to give in, a confederate called The Count (Regnier) manages to bluff is way into the prison and release the three prisoners. They are found out during their escape, but manage to make it outside the walls, where a car chase ensues. The Count is shot and sacrifices himself, but the three protagonists manage to make it to an airfield where waiting plane whisks them to freedom. Hazlewood's screenplay is based only on the bare bones of the MacLean novel; unfortunately, the missing elements are replaced by virtually every spy-movie cliché in the book and what little remains of the original plot is obfuscated. The characters and their motivations are never made clear to the audience, so any suspense that is generated comes strictly from the situations in which the protagonists are placed. The film ends up being a poor man's version of The Third Man, without any of the style of that great film. There are certainly worse films than The Secret Ways — and it's a passable way to while away a lazy Saturday afternoon — but anyone seeking a top-notch Alistair MacLean thriller is better advised to read the novel.
The Secret Ways The Film | The Music Audio | Video | Sheet Music References | Links		The Music Music by: Johnny Williams Music Supervision by: Joseph Gershenson At the time this film was produced, Johnny Williams was under contract to Revue Studios, the television arm of Universal. Here he wrote his first feature score for the studio, under the supervision of Joseph Gershenson. The musical materials are laid out in the main title: an Eastern European-flavored melody that serves as the main theme; an ostinato figure in the low strings; and a descending scale figure. Various other thematic fragments used in suspense cues throughout the film are largely derived from phrases of the principal theme. The theme is first heard in the A minor main title played by a zither (perhaps a bow to The Third Man) and then in a sequence of variations, coupled with the other melodic fragments, which exhibit that Williams' abilities as an orchestrator and arranger were quite well developed even this early in his career. (We also hear the upward woodwind flourishes that would become something of a trademark.) The folk tune-like melody is also heard as source music, in the guise of a waltz played on accordion, during a scene in a cafe early in the film. With the exception of a sprightly clarinet duet that underscores two brief lighter moments, the score maintains a fairly dark and morose tone throughout, lending credence to Variety's comment that "Johnny Williams' theme music adds an appropriately ominous note." Williams' score was also mentioned in the New York Times review; Howard Thompson wrote: "Oddly enough, the music here, too, provides the tip-off. Tingling and colorful (and composed by Johnny Williams) at the outset, as a Zurich banker dispatches Mr. Widmark on his mission, it soon becomes loudly insistent, telegraphing most of the incidents." While this overstates the case a bit, it is true that for the most part the score merely underlines what is on screen rather than providing any psychological insight. But there are some exceptions, for example in a short cue in the apartment of a woman who Reynolds has met in the cafe: we hear a dreamy treatment of the main theme, with the tune played by an accordion to recall the circumstances of their first encounter. There are also a couple of sequences which are notable for the effective absence of music; Williams was apparently already aware that sometimes no music at all can create suspense more effectively than any scoring conjured up by a composer.
The Secret Ways The Film | The Music Audio | Video | Sheet Music References | Links		Audio No recording of any of Williams' music from The Secret Ways has ever been released.
		Video The film is not available on video, although it is broadcast from time to time on American Movie Classics.
Champion 02363		Sheet Music A piano arrangement of the main theme was issued by Champion Music Corporation in 1961. This sheet music is long out of print. References The Secret Ways, Alistair MacLean Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959.  286pp. "Film Reviews: The Secret Ways" Variety, Mar 22 1961 "Review: The Secret Ways," Howard Thompson  Variety, May 25 1961, 31:1
The Secret Ways The Film | The Music Audio | Video | Sheet Music References | Links		Links Internet Movie Database entry for The Secret Ways Cinebooks Database entry for The Secret Ways All Movie Guide entry for The Secret Ways
Page last modified June 05, 2006		home | news | compositions | recordings | reference The John Williams Web Pages www.johnwilliams.org