| Passport to Treason | |
| Producer: | Robert S. Baker |
| Based On: | novel by Paddy Manning O'Brine |
| Music: | Stanley Black |
| Cinematography: | Monty Berman |
| Editing: | Henry Richardson |
| Studio: | Mid-Century Film Productions |
| Distributor: | Eros Films (UK) |
| Runtime: | 80 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
Passport to Treason is a 1956 British second feature[1] mystery thriller directed by Robert S. Baker and starring Rod Cameron, Lois Maxwell, and Clifford Evans.[2] It was written by Kenneth R. Hayles and Norman Hudis, based on the Manning O'Brine novel of the same name.[3] [4]
After the death of a friend, private investigator Mike O'Kelly investigates an organisation that claims to be working for world peace, but turns out to be a front for a crime syndicate.
Monthly Film Bulletin said "Opening with the private detective wandering through a London fog, this thriller goes on to introduce the corpse (stabbed) clutching the book with a vital clue, the private nursing home equipped with a good stock of "truth drug," the equivocally placed heroine, and the gun battle in a dockside warehouse. Such classic situations, here presented earnestly but humourlessly, make up a fairly routine melodrama."[5]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Stock melodramatic situations straighforwardly presented make this a watchable support."[6]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Resolute thriller reminiscent of the late 1930s."[7]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "Western star Rod Cameron should never have packed his passport to play the private eye in this dire British B-feature with its sub-Hitchcockian plot about neo-fascists in London concealing their activities within an organisation for world peace. A better actor than granite-jawed Cameron might have breathed some life into the line-up of hackneyed situations."[8]