Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

jc-osms Reduced to making pictures with Republic with a limited budget and B-list actors didn't stop Fritz Lang producing this dark turn-of-the-century thriller. In Louis Hayward's Stephen Byrne, an aspiring writer with a devoted wife and faithful brother, Lang creates a memorably dastardly villain. When he makes a spurned pass at the household's pretty new maid as she descends the stairs in a dressing gown showing, for the time, a daring amount of bare leg, he unthinkingly strangles her and involves his over-loyal brother in covering up his tracks.However, the river where they dump the body has a habit of returning abandoned items from whence they came and it's not too long before the sack containing the dead girl's body drifts back into view and a spiralling sequence of events ensue including a murder trial, accusations of an affair between wife and brother-in-law, two more attempted murders and a dramatic death-scene just before the final curtain.I noticed Republic's supposedly cheap background sets less than usual, a tribute to Lang and his crew's imaginative use of the established noir elements of dark, expressionistic shadows, tracking shots and using framing devices, such as doors, (very apt, considering Stephen's setting up of his brother for murder). I was impressed by the acting of the three lead players, Louis Hayward, in particular is superb as the borderline psychopath Stephen, a threatening leer never far from his face while Jane Wyatt is also very good as the loving wife whose eyes gradually open to her husband's true nature and Lee Bowman is redoubtable as the limping brother who puts sibling duty before adherence to the law.Most of all though it's Lang's mean and moody direction which gradually brings the whole affair to the boil, even if the final haunting of Stephen before his demise seems to have wandered in from grand opera.Nevertheless this fine little film noir is another notable entry in director Lang's distinguished list of works.

evening1 I enjoyed this thriller about a psychopathic writer who accidentally kills his sexy maid and then tries to pin it on his crippled brother.Louis Hayward overacts a bit as Stephen, the failed scribe who rejects his attractive and classy wife, Marjorie (Jane Wyatt), in favor of his tease of a housekeeper.I enjoyed the performance of Lee Bowman as Stephen's brother John, who, out of family loyalty, allows himself to be dangerously manipulated. He too harbors a forbidden love -- for his brother's wife -- but has the integrity not to act on it. Descending into alcoholism, he'd rather flee than make love with his sister-in-law.In a film that is much less ambitious than a classic such as "M," Fritz Lang creates scenes of satisfying creepiness on a river that is central to the plot. In addition, a courtroom scene is quite entertaining.My only quibble with this movie is its facile ending. It all ties up just a little too neatly. I expected more from this famed director.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** It's when frustrated writer Stephen Byrne, Louis Heyward, got himself a bit giddy and started to make a play from his housemaid Emily Gaunt, Dorothy Patrick, that things started to really get out of hand in the Byrne household. Refusing to take no for an answer Stephen overpowered Emily and in a fit of paranoia in him being caught by his both gabby and nosy-body next door neighbor Mrs. Ambrose, Ann Shoemaker, in the act ended up accidentally strangling Emily to keep her from crying out for help!It was just Stephen's luck that his lame, in body not in mind, brother John, Lee Bowman, showed up and at first refusing to agree with the terrified,in being arrested for Emily's death, Stephen's plan to dispose of the body reluctantly goes alone with it that in fact implicated him as well in her death as well as it does Stephen. Deep sixing Emily body stuffed in a wood-sack at the bottom of the nearby river Stephen is now free to go back to work and write his great novel that the death of Emily's inspires him to do.It's when Emily suddenly resurfaces that things start to go bad for the conscientious John who feels that he's in a way responsible for covering up her death as well as him being the #1 suspect in Emily's murder! The wood-sack that Emily's body was found in had John's name written on it which his conniving brother Stephen made sure of. That takes the heat off Stephen and puts it square on his totally innocent and a bit gullible brother John. Stephen in fact even uses Emily's tragic death to promote his latest murder novel to the both shock and disgust of his brother John as well as his wife Marjorie, Jane Wyatt.With a court of inquiry clearing Stephen of any involvement in Emily's death it's now the innocent John who's under the spotlight and that drives the poor man almost to the brink of suicide! It's when Stephen starts to overplay his hand by both accusing John of having an affair with his wife Marjorie as well as trying to drive him to off or kill himself in order to prove to the police that he in fact killed Emily that John finally turned the tables on his back-stabbing brother.***SPOILERS*** It was Stephen's attempt to murder John and make it look like suicide that in the end backfired on him. John coming back from the dead, or the bottom of the river, got his by now crazed brother Stephen, in thinking that he's seeing a ghost, to finally lose it! Running for his life down the stairs of his Victorian mansion Stephen runs smack into what looked ,in his deranged mind, Emily's ghost and ends up getting all that he's got coming to him; At the end of a rope of wall curtain! P.S Watch for former "Little Rascal" Carl Alfalfa Switzer in the film in a bit part as the office boy.

kenjha A writer inadvertently kills his maid and convinces his brother to help him dispose of the body. Dark and brooding, this one drips with film noir atmosphere, helped by the Gothic setting (house by the river!). It is masterfully directed by Lang, who it seems was incapable of making an uninteresting film. It is fascinating watching the tension grow between the self-absorbed writer, his caring wife, and his crippled brother. Hayward makes a good villain. Wyatt, who's rarely looked as attractive, is fine as his wife. Bowman is excellent in the sympathetic role of the crippled brother. The ending is somewhat abrupt, but the film is quite absorbing.