School for Secrets

"The Secret a Million Kept!"

1946 1h 48m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

★7.2TMDB · 5

DramaWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Wartime tale of a group of British scientists efforts to develop the first radar system. They did it just in time for it to be used in the Battle of Britain against the might of the Nazi Luftwaffe. Without it the little island could well have been overrun.

“The Secret a Million Kept!”

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Cast

Ralph Richardson
Prof. Heatherville
Raymond Huntley
Prof. Laxton-Jones
John Laurie
Dr. McVitie
Ernest Jay
Dr. Dainty
David Tomlinson
Mr. Watlington
Finlay Currie
Sir Duncan Wills
Norman Webb
Dr. Wainwright
Michael Hordern
Lt. Cmdr. Lowther

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Peter Ustinov
Writers: Peter Ustinov
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

80 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Peter Ustinov, shot by Jack Hildyard. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alan Rawsthorne. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Russell Lloyd shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Ralph Richardson and Raymond Huntley and John Laurie carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The Secret a Million Kept!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0038911 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 5 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Peter Ustinov directs. Jack Hildyard behind the camera. Alan Rawsthorne scores. Russell Lloyd cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

180 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Directed by Peter Ustinov, shot by Jack Hildyard. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Alan Rawsthorne. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Russell Lloyd shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Ralph Richardson and Raymond Huntley and John Laurie carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "The Secret a Million Kept!".
7IMDB entry: tt0038911 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 5 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Jack Hildyard
Original score: Alan Rawsthorne
Editing: Russell Lloyd
Makeup / hair: Tony Sforzini
Runtime: 108 min · 1h 48m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: School for Secrets (1946)

Also by

Peter Ustinov

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-12-25
★ 7/10
Did you know that the word “boffin” was originally military slang and had more to do with a puffin that a scientist? Well you would after a few moments of this light-hearted wartime adventure that follows a group of top secret inventors who are charged with finding a way of creating a portable radar set that can be placed in airborne aircraft. Sent to a remote RAF installation, “Prof. Heatherville” (Ralph Richardson) leads quite an eclectic team of colleagues amidst quite a bit of scepticism as to why they are not all out at the front and not sitting in a drawing room having tea! Things become decidedly more dangerous when they discover that the Nazis have stolen a bit of a technological march on the Brits, and so they must embark on a trip across the channel and appropriate their technology. What chance they can succeed and get it back without getting it wet? I found Richardson to be a bit wooden here, but with the usually reliable Raymond Huntley and John Laurie there to amiably shore things up, and with David Tomlinson leading an host of other familiar British faces, this rolls along entertainingly enough. With the war having only recently finished when this hit the cinemas, you can see some attempts have been made to balance the sensitivities of something still quite raw with some stoic humour that was fairly prevalent in films made in the UK throughout the conflict. It has Peter Ustinov, quite literally, written all over it - his sense of humour being a touch more cerebral and less slapstick, which I prefer. It’s a bit slow to get started, but once up and running it marries some fun characterisations with some more serious aspects of WWII whilst illustrating just how important these unheralded backroom boys were in achieving victory - and how idle talk could cost lives!

Production companies