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Doublecross (1956 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Doublecross' is a 1956 British crime film directed by Anthony Squire and starring Donald Houston, Fay Compton and William Hartnell. It was also known as 'Queer Fish'.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090114061514/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/61391 Doublecross at the BFI]
Plot
The story takes place in a Cornish fishing town in the 1950s.
Local fisherman assemble in a local pub, apparently to practise their bell-ringing. They are approached by two foreign men (and one woman) who are interested in making use of a boat and ask questions about going to the French coast.
Albert Pascoe agrees to take them to France for 100, half paid in advance. They sail off on a moonlit night on a trip that will take until the next afternoon.
Meanwhile, back in the village, Albert's smaller rowing boat is found with four large poached salmon in it. A friend hides them from the authorities.
Police get involved when it is revealed that one of the foreign men is a murderer.
Albert overhears the two foreign men and woman (wife of one of the men) discussing that one of the men Dmitri Krassin had to kill a man in England while stealing UK state secrets.
After this, Albert decides to doublecross the three tricking them by altering the boat's compass and landing them back somewhere on the coast of England, which he knows resembles the coast of France.
In mid-channel the foreign men plot to kill Albert after he drops them in France. He is forewarned of this by the woman Anna and attacks them as soon as they land, trying to wrestle a gun from Krassin. He spits in Clifford's face. Anna has not left the boat and when he returns to the boat they set off to sea again. Anna discusses her home country of Hungary where her father fished on Lake Balaton
and Anna and Albert begin to fall in love.
When quizzed by the police Albert reveals that he dropped the spies at Lands End, England knowing that they could not get off the beach and had no idea that it was not France and defends Anna as being completely innocent.
The police refuse to charge Albert with illegally catching a salmon just as he returned to the harbour. Albert and Anna decide to try to live together as a couple.
Cast
* Donald Houston - Albert Pascoe
* Fay Compton - Alice Pascoe
* Anton Diffring - Dmitri Krassin a spy
* Allan Cuthbertson - Clifford, a spy
* Delphi Lawrence - Anna Krassin
* William Hartnell - Herbert Whiteway, the landowner
* Kenneth Cope - Jeffrey of the Coast Guard (his first credited role in a film)
* Colin Douglas - Police Sergeant
* Robert Shaw - Ernest, an off-duty policeman who fills in for Albert in his bell-ringing role (Shaw's first film role albeit minor)
* Frank Lawton - Chief Constable
* Harry Towb - the pub landlord
References
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