Belinda Lee should have had a much better career than she did because she was a very good actress – and this ‘The Secret Place’ is regarded as one of her best films.

Sadly she died in California in a car crash – she was not the driver – a few years after this, in 1961

The Story of the film – Gerry Carter (Ronald Lewis) and his pal Steve (Michael Gwynn) are planning a jewel robbery in London’s Hatton Garden, but they need a policeman’s uniform to do the job as planned. That is how Molly Wilson (Belinda Lee) ends up involved as not only is she Gerry’s girlfriend but her brother Mike (David McCallum) is also involved in the plan. Molly’s part is that a young boy called Freddie (Michael Brooke) is besotted with her and will pretty much do anything she asks of him and that includes taking one of his police father’s uniforms.

‘The Secret Place’ – Gerry and his gang pull off the robbery but afterwards discover things haven’t gone to plan, leading to them wanting to stash the stolen jewels at Molly’s place in her gramophone. Then the gramophone changes hands to complicate things

“The Secret Place” has a good cast with David McCallum, Belinda Lee and Michael Brooke all delivering solid performances. In fact young Michael Brooke stands out because he delivers that childhood infatuation of young Freddie quite brilliantly yet we also get to see the conflict as he realises Molly used him to get a police uniform.

If you want to get a good feel for 1950s Britain, this is the place for you. The street scenes in this film are pure gold. The destruction rendered on the country by the Second World War is still all around. Children play among the rubble of bombed-out houses and and perilously tumbled-down factories. Cars are few.

This is the background for the story of a young boy whose naive crush on a pretty young woman is repaid with betrayal. However she, too, is a victim, being manipulated by the scheming Gerry Carter, played by Ronald Lewis.

The premiere of The Secret Place was at the Gaumont Theatre in London on 6 February 1957