LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Vultural ~ The opening was one of the longest "prepare to die" speeches I have ever seen. Twenty minutes. Suave, cuckolded Eric Portman, visits then subdues his rival. Next, he tells how he learned of the man's bush brushing while he was overseas, and how he intends to kill him. Afterward, he spends another five minutes doing the deed and scattering the false trail. Then all the steam escapes, and the plot plods into police procedural. Turns out, hot, cheating wife (Greta Gynt) has a history of running around. She's already lined up her next man snack. Her husband needs roller skates to snuff everyone grazing her grass. Nice lighting, lot of Noir touches, though this is very much in the British mystery vein. Alright, at best. Dull and disappointing at worst.

secondtake Dear Murderer (1947)What a fabulous, complicated, feint and double feint movie about murder, attempted and otherwise. It's a very British feeling film, and though it has a film noir darkness (very dark, in my copy), it doesn't have the angularity nor the action of an American noir. More defining, though, is the deliberate parlor game feel to this very deadly situation. You might compare (if comparing is helpful) to the Joan Crawford "Sudden Fear" to make this most obvious.There is a lot of sparring with words here, very smartly written, and you have to pay attention as the intentions of the characters seem to be shifting all the time. You have to have the low key, steadfast, opaque, and clever detective of course, and the detective here is brilliantly all those things. And you have to have motive, which we have in abundance.And you need abundance since so much is going to go wrong here. Eric Portman is the key figure through it all, and he plays a jilted husband with laconic brilliance. His wife, and his wife's several lovers, are all excellent in support, each either surpassingly innocent at heart despite their adulteries, or really devious and selfish. It's beautifully constructed, and really a joy. But you have to pay attention. No getting up for popcorn here.

lucy-66 Low budget noir with deep shadows. Greta Gynt is great as the nasal-voiced adulteress. Her tacky furnishings (lampshades like skirts and satin sheets) betray her inner rottenness - spot those coiled serpents on the shoulders of her nightdress! Eric Portman is as brilliant and compelling - and sympathetic - as ever. If you like this, see him in A Canterbuy Tale. xxxxx

calvertfan Very slow moving, but still compelling, worth sticking with till the bitter end, if only to see how it all pans out.Lee finds out his wife is having an affair, so he kills the man, and sets it up to look like a suicide. Only problem is, his wife has stopped having an affair with that man, and moved onto a new affair!Greta Gynt, looking a lot like Gene Tierney, is great, as are Hazel Court and Andrew Crawford, whose parts were unfortunately very small. If you're getting bored, take heed that the movie does pick up an awful lot in the last quarter! 7/10