1944 is the height of WWII and England is being bombed by Germany in what is known as the Blitz. Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) has just been released from Lembridge Asylum in Lembridge, England. He was sentenced there for the mercy killing of his terminally ill wife. Now that he is out, he plans on going to London to immerse himself in crowds of people. While waiting for the train he sees a charity carnival near the station being run by the “Mothers of Free Nations”. He decides to wander around and absorb the noise and activity of the event.
At one booth he buys a ticket to guess the weight of a cake. If he comes the closest, he wins the cake. He doesn’t win. At another booth is a fortune teller called Mrs. Bellane (Aminita Dyne). The woman begins to tell him his past and comes close to the truth. Not wanting to hear about it he tells her to ignore the past and tell the future. She strangely tells him to go back and guess the weight of the cake again. She tells him to guess the weight at 4 pounds 15 ½ ounces. Confused, Stephen does what he is told. He wins the cake. Suddenly a young man shows up and makes a bee line for the fortune teller’s booth. Workers at the charity run up to Stephen and tell him they were wrong about the weight of the cake and try to get it back from him. Stephen refuses and leaves. On the train he is attacked by a man pretending to be blind. The man steals the cake but ends up being blown up by a German air attack.
Realizing that something really strange is going on, Stephen investigates the charity organization and meets Willi Hilfe (Carl Esmond) and his sister Carla (Marjorie Reynolds). He explains the situation to them and tells him about the fortune teller. Willi takes him to the home of Mrs. Bellane (Hillary Brooke). Stephen finds that she is a different person than the woman he saw at the carnival. The new Mrs. Bellane is holding a séance. The man from the carnival, Cost (Dan Duyea) is there. At one point a disembodied voice claims that Stephen poisoned her. Stephen breaks the circle, a shot rings out and Cost is found dead. Stephen is accused and flees.
Confused by these events Stephen tries to get answers but ends up in the middle of a Nazi plot that could extend all the way to England’s Ministry of Home Security. Half of his problem is not knowing who is friend and who is foe. The other half is convincing Scotland Yard that a Nazi spy ring is in London.
“Ministry of Fear” was released in 1944 and was directed by Fritz Lang. It is an American film noir. The film was loosely based on the 1943 novel “The Ministry of Fear” by Graham Greene.
Lang wasn’t happy with the film. Seton Miller was both the producer and the screenwriter, so Lang was not allowed to make any changes to the script. Lang felt that the script was far from what the author of the book intended. Reportedly, some years later when Lang met Greene, he apologized for how the film came out.
Overall, I enjoyed the film, but it wasn’t one of Lang’s best. I’m not sure if it was the strange storyline or the uneven editing but something about it seemed off. The work wasn’t as polished as what Lang usually creates. What was there was good, but it didn’t have Lang’s free hand to add his magic touch.