A ’52 film adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s story, “The Secret Sharer,” offers James Mason as the newly commanding sea captain. He and director John Brahm do estimable work on the 48-minute effort, even if Mason may be too old for the role.
Going against social morality, Conrad’s, and Mason’s, captain protects a sailor, Leggatt (Michael Pate), who has committed murder. He did so, indeed, out of the same sense of duty that the captain possesses, but he will never be understood by the navy (or society?). Likewise the captain is not yet understood by his crew. He so resembles Leggatt that the latter amounts to being the captain’s “other self,” and it was exactly right for the production company to cast an actor who looks a lot like Mason. And The Secret Sharer (in black and white, naturally) looks a lot like Conrad.