SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

SnoopyStyle Professor Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson) is teaching psychology of homicide at Gotham College. He sends his family off on their vacation while he continues working. He becomes entranced by a portrait in a store window and joins a woman (Joan Bennett) with a similar likeness. She invites him home to see more sketches and then her boyfriend Frank arrive. Frank immediate goes into a rage and Richard kills him in self defense. She tells Richard that Frank is a secret boyfriend and she knows little about him. Her place has the name Alice Reed on the mailbox. Richard decides to dispose of the body to save his reputation. However he leaves behind many clues and the case is more mysterious than it first appears. Frank turns out to be powerful financier Claude Mazard. One of his friend is D.A. Frank Lalor (Raymond Massey) who tells him all about the case. Then he's blackmailed by ex-cop Heidt (Dan Duryea) who was the dead man's bodyguard.This is a great suspense thriller. I really like the cat and mouse game. Once it gets going, it becomes a compelling thriller. Edward G. Robinson is good as he always is although he could be more scared at the start. He's a bit too calm after killing a man. As for the ending, I don't like the twist. If that's the ending, it could have been done much better by laying down obvious clues.

mark.waltz It is only by chance that assistant professor of criminology Edward G. Robinson encounters the beautiful Joan Bennett. He is admiring her portrait in the gallery window and it is certainly a surprise to him when he sees her reflection behind her. She innocently invites him over to her apartment to show him drawings by the same artist, and all of a sudden, he finds himself plummeting a pair of scissors into a man's back who interrupted them and presumed something else was going on. He only thought that he was trying to get the man to stop beating him when Bennett conveniently placed the scissors in his hand. Now, determined not to be involved in a murder wrap, Robinson and Bennett conspire to get rid of the body, thus (with his expertise) committing the perfect crime.But crime, no matter the circumstances, never goes undetected, and when the body is discovered, Robinson's pal (Raymond Massey) is involved in the case and asks Robinson to aide him in putting together the clues. The fact that certain aspects of the case Robinson innocently reveals and the fact that certain clues show up implicating Robinson doesn't make him a suspect, but his own guilt gets him back together to conspire with Bennett, especially when a shady blackmailer (Dan Duryea) gets involved.This is a tight little film noir, sometimes slow moving, but always intriguing, only marred by a trick ending. The first half of the film focuses on Robinson's efforts to keep himself from being exposed; the second half focuses on Bennett's dealings with the sinister Duryea. Bennett moved from light-hearted leading lady into film noir vixen with ease, proving that she was more than just a former blonde beauty who became brunette to capitalize on her Hedy Lamarr similar looks. Actually, I had always known that Bennett was a better actress than the types of roles she had been doing up to this point, and as film noir became a major part of American cinema, her status in Hollywood rose, proving that even in the age-defined movie capital, re-defining yourself can stretch your career and keep you going, something very rare, especially for women heading past their mid 30's.As for Edward G. Robinson, he had always mixed his tough guy gangsters with the milquetoast characters he played in such classics as "The Whole Town's Talking" and "Mr. Winkle Goes to War". Robinson proves once again that he was one of the most versatile actors in film and could handle both leads and supporting parts with equal vigor. Director Fritz Lang provides enough thrills here, and while the final denouncement is a bit inconclusive (even before the trick ending), there's a nice touch involving character actress Iris Adrian that will make you forgive the writers for fooling you and being slightly cheap in bringing the film to its conclusion.

bandw This story of a middle-aged man, Professor Richard Wanley, who inadvertently gets caught up in a murder has a lot of good points. For one thing it calls to mind the myriad of unfortunate situations an innocent person can get involved in and promotes an understanding of such situations. And it makes you ask what you would have done in the circumstances. I liked the setup with Wanley being friends with the district attorney and thus having an inside look at the investigation that increasingly points to him as the murderer. The black and white photography is good, but not as dramatic as in some other Fritz Lang films, like "M."I liked the period decor and dress.But I had some problems. Wanley is fascinated by a portrait of a beautiful woman in a store window. Late one night while walking home he stops to admire the portrait and to speculate about the woman. Then, miraculously, the woman appears in the flesh, strikes up a conversation and invites him up to her apartment. A beautiful woman taking up with a stolid middle-aged stranger in New Your City, not very likely unless she is a hooker. Maybe that was to be inferred but not allowed to be explicitly specified in a 1940s movie, but from what is seen this inference is difficult to make.There are many other plot points that put me off. I don't think it would be nearly so easy to kill someone with a couple of jabs to the back with a pair of scissors, particularly in such a bloodless manner. Carrying a 200 pound body around like Wanley did would be beyond his strength--a body is an awkward dead weight. As a lecturer on topics like "Some Psychological Aspects of Homicide," I think Wanley would have been smarter than to make some of the mistakes he did during the investigation. And so on.You might say that the ending makes my complaints moot, but then you have to believe that it is possible to have such a detailed coherent dream where, in less than an hour, the dream spans several days. And I think it is a cop out when a movie involves you and then pulls the, "Oh, it was just a dream" trope.As much as I dislike remakes, I think that this might be a good candidate for such. For example, I imagine that the scene that has the three 40-somethings sitting around proclaiming how "Men of our years have no business playing around with any adventure they can avoid," would play differently now, some seventy-five years later.

Michael O'Keefe Fritz Lang directs this fulfilling film noir about a straight-laced college psychology professor entering into a surprising dalliance while his family is away. Richard Manley(Edward G. Robinson)sees the portrait of a beautiful woman, Alice(Joan Bennett), and lands in a world of hurt, when he meets the model and she invites him up to her apartment for a drink. It becomes more than one drink; there seems to be thoughts of romance, but Alice's jealous boyfriend(Arthur Loft) arrives and goes into a rage assaulting the couple. In self defense the professor puts a pair of scissors in the back of his attacker. Now there is the problem of disposing of the body. It gets a bit dicey, because Manley's best friend,(Raymond Massey), happens to be the D.A. working the murder case. And for more suspense, a blackmailer(Dan Duryea)slinks into the mix.Very crisp black & white with just the right atmosphere, off and on rain showers. The story line of forbidden and doomed love is what movies are made of. Robinson is in top form and Bennett is absolutely beautiful. I'm a sucker for classic movies like this.