Twenty pages of promotion for the Ministry of Fear, 1944, in a large format pressbook, does justice to this intriguing noir suspense thriller about a man who wins a cake but doesn’t have the time to eat it because of Nazi saboteurs. Ray Milland (as Stephen Neale) plays the perfect patsy for accidentally getting in the middle of spy-full things. Making matters worse for him are his recent release from a mental ward and his sincere confusion as to what he’s exactly mixed up in, real or not. Fritz Lang directs with sufficient gloom and shadows and unpleasant people. Given Lang’s background, fear and paranoia move throughout the movie, and the wartime London intrigue keeps the environment tense. “The use of low-key lighting and oblique camera angles heightens tension and mirrors Stephen Neale’s psychological turmoil” (Movie Star History). I would add that Ray Milland’s eyes and face convey it all. See him in The Uninvited (1944) and The Big Clock (1948) too.
