Feature Film | Thriller | USA | English | 1h43m
Dir: Henry Hathaway | Scr: Nigel Balchin | Novel: Philip MacDonald | Ph: Milton Krasner | Prod: Henry Ephron | Mus: Leigh Harline | Ed: James B. Clark | AD: Maurice Ransford & Lyle R. Wheeler | Snd: Bernard Freericks & Harry M. Leonard | Cast: Van Johnson, Vera Miles, Cecil Parker, Patricia Laffan, Maurice Denham, Estelle Winwood, Liam Redmond, Isobel Elsom, Martin Benson, Natalie Norwick, Terence de Marney
A blind playwright, whilst sitting alone drinking in a pub, overhears what he believes to be a conversation about a planned kidnapping, but receives little help from the police in the absence of any real evidence, and so decides, with the help of his former fiancée and his valet, to investigate the matter himself, in Hathaway’s stylish and unpredictable thriller. Though there’s more than an element of Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) about proceedings, the film’s fine performances, exquisite sets, striking photography, and atypical characterisation keep things feeling fresh.
