It's consistent realism makes this film more interesting and superior to any of the various spy game novels by Ian Fleming and all that lot, which generally appear absurd for their contrived artificial constructions, while this gives you the impression of being taken from real life, almost like a documentary, actually anticipating John le Carré. The gratefully repeated sequences of the streets of London are quite genuine, and the cinema used for clandestine exchanges even leading to a murder does still exist, launched already in 1914. The film gives an authentic mood of post-war London, although you don't see any ruins, but the feeling of hangover weariness is unmistakable, especially since the spy leading to the winding up of the dirty business of treason is a regular alcoholic with all his emptied bottles kept for memories. The mood is somewhere between John le Carré, Georges Simenon and Graham Greene, and every second of the operation is worth all your attention, not a word is wasted, not one step is a false move, and you can't ignore the casualties - it is a dirty business, as Mary states as a fact for an excuse not to marry her devoted Ray.
Review of The Traitors
