The Fake (1953)

This is actually quite a fun little story with just about all of the jeopardy dealt with by the title! A ship docks at Tilbury and a crate is off-loaded, rather unceremoniously. A scuffle breaks out between the dockers and next thing, the world renowned "Madonna and Child" by Leonardo Da Vinci has gone walkabouts. It's very quickly recovered, but - is it the real thing? Well fortunately, we have a visiting American expert "Mitchell" (Dennis O'Keefe) on hand and soon he is on the hunt for a mysterious and well connected fraudster. Coleen Gray provides the sidekick element amiably enough, and there's a surprisingly decent supporting cast with John Laurie and Hugh Williams featuring, but the production is cheap as chips and photography as wobbly as most of the sets. There are some interesting interiors of London's Tate Gallery illustrating a rather grander collection than the rolled up prop Leonardos that make up the bulk of the story. Dora Bryan is, as ever, behind the bar calling time and you might spot Leslie Phillips and Billie Whitelaw who both went on to better things, too. It's too long, a bit on the verbal side and O'Keefe is just a little wooden, but it's still quite a watchable affair.