It would be six more years before the first James Bond film, Dr. No, hit the screen, but it’s impossible not to catch Bond vibes in Guy Green’s full-color House of Secrets (US: Triple Deception), a criminal adventure noir in which handsome, suave Michael Craig appears to be auditioning for the 007 role that would ultimately go to Sean Connery. Craig plays Larry Ellis, a ship’s officer who catches the attention of Colonel Burleigh (Geoffrey Keene) of the Criminal Investigation Authority (not that CIA) because of his uncanny resemblance to a man named Chancellor, the head of a Paris-based international counterfeiting ring who’s just died (the scene revealing Chancellor’s corpse to Ellis is very skillfully done). Ellis is soon persuaded to take on the counterfeiter’s identity and infiltrate the syndicate to track down the evasive leader and report back to Burleigh (one rendezvous takes place on top of the Eiffel Tower). The enterprise starts out as a success with Ellis easily convincing local boss Madame Isabella Ballu (Brenda de Banzie) and number two Julius Pindar (Gérard Oury) that he’s Chancellor as usual, but he’ll have less luck with Madame Ballu’s niece Diane Gilbert (Julia Arnall), who, despite her skepticism, will take a liking to Ellis and aid his efforts (but is she trustworthy?). An underappreciated crime yarn with the feel of a spy film, Triple Deception is thoroughly entertaining, featuring several excellent fistfights and knife fights with exciting choreography and a delightful defenestration scene, street chases through the black and blue shadows of nighttime, and, doubling down on the spy adventure tropes, a character who leaps desperately from a plane, showered by bullets on the way down.