The Fake

The Fake

25/9/1953 1h 20m 5.5/10

Overview

Someone is stealing priceless paintings from the great museums of the world and replacing them with nearly flawless forgeries. Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna and Child" is being shipped to London's Tate Gallery for a special exhibition, and Paul Mitchell is assigned to protect it. Upon the painting's arrival, Paul realizes it has been switched. Eager to collect the museum's $50,000 reward, he teams up with Mary Mason, a Tate employee, to recover the original.

Director

Angela Allen

Top Billed Cast

Guy Middleton

Guy Middleton

Smith

Coleen Gray

Coleen Gray

Mary Mason

Hugh Williams

Hugh Williams

Sir Richard Aldingham

Dennis O'Keefe

Dennis O'Keefe

Paul Mitchell

John Laurie

John Laurie

Henry Mason

Gerald Case

Randall

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

3/7/2024

6/10

This is actually quite a fun little story with just about all of the jeopardy dealt with by the title! A ship docks at Tilbury and a crate is off-loaded, rather unceremoniously. A scuffle breaks out between the dockers and next thing, the world renowned "Madonna and Child" by Leonardo Da Vinci has gone walkabouts. It's very quickly recovered, but - is it the real thing? Well fortunately, we have a visiting American expert "Mitchell" (Dennis O'Keefe) on hand and soon he is on the hunt for a mysterious and well connected fraudster. Coleen Gray provides the sidekick element amiably enough, and there's a surprisingly decent supporting cast with John Laurie and Hugh Williams featuring, but the production is cheap as chips and photography as wobbly as most of the sets. There are some interesting interiors of London's Tate Gallery illustrating a rather grander collection than the rolled up prop Leonardos that make up the bulk of the story. Dora Bryan is, as ever, behind the bar calling time and you might spot Leslie Phillips and Billie Whitelaw who both went on to better things, too. It's too long, a bit on the verbal side and O'Keefe is just a little wooden, but it's still quite a watchable affair.

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