Artivels Undescribable Perfection

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Antonius Block There's nothing too special here, but it's an entertaining enough noir. Audrey Totter plays a materialistic woman cheating on her pharmacist husband (Richard Basehart), a nice guy who is crushed when she leaves him for another man. He assumes an alter ego based on a brand new technology (contact lenses!), and plots revenge. Along the way he meets a nice girl (Cyd Charisse), who puts a delightful wrinkle in his plans. Totter has a wonderfully strong edge in this film, scheming and openly defiant of her husband. The scene where she appears with eyes flashing in the mirror is probably the film's strongest. Unfortunately the rest of the cast don't keep up with her. Barry Sullivan is reasonably strong as the detective, as is William Conrad as his sidekick, but he lacks a little in the 'tough guy' department. I liked seeing Charisse who has such a fresh face and is so likeable, but I'm not sure how deep her character or performance was. Other than Totter, there's just something missing, some grit or hardness, which prevents this from being a very good or great film. Also, quite a bit of the rest of the plot is telegraphed, and without a lot of subtlety. As for direction, it's decent, and the shots in the pharmacy and the street outside of it are good, as there is so much detail in the entire frame during these scenes. There was also something that was interesting about seeing a more obscure, 'B' film noir, which never committed any major errors, even if it didn't hit any homeruns.

Benedito Dias Rodrigues Noir is one's my favorite style of movie and this one is really great. Since the beginning when the cop explain how he solve an investigation. The story is about a bad marriage between a pharmacist and his unfaithful wife,betrayed and left by her...he want and planned a revenge but to give up in time but the man was killed that night...and your wife comeback to him...now he's in trouble with the cops who are in charge of the case. Richard Basehart and Audrey Totter made a great performance in this movie and Barry Sullivan as a wise cop together with your partner William Conrad and don't forget the young Cyd Charisse!!Sooo delightful movie!!!

LCShackley This late-40s film noir has all the right ingredients: murder, a sleazy and deadly female (Totter, with a wonderful gamut of facial expressions), a female with a heart of gold (Charisse), a possibly corrupt cop (who functions as narrator), location shooting, and a wonderful jazzy score by Andre Previn with possibly THE most perfect "femme fatale" theme ever written. (When that sax starts to wail you know that your heart is about to be stomped flat.)Of course, there are lots of films with these ingredients, but what really makes this one tick is a great script. The writers manipulate your feelings about the characters, especially Quimby (Richard Basehart). Is he a sappy milquetoast? Or a killer? Or an adulterer? And what about that cop? Whose side is he on, anyway? One great twist after another leads to a very satisfying conclusion.I had never heard of this film, but it popped up on TMC and I'm glad I took the time to watch. I think it stands with the best of the genre.

dougdoepke Putting glasses on the very versatile Richard Basehart and sticking him with a drugstore and a faithless trophy wife (Totter) is almost inspired. His Warren Quimby is such a timid, dependent little guy, and when wife Claire thrusts out her ample chest at any well-dressed man who walks by, we feel for the put-upon pharmacist. He's working day and night trying to please her, but she could care less, especially when she hooks up with the flashy Barney Deager (Gough) and rubs Warren's nose in it. Or rather it's Deager who does the nose-rubbing in the sands of his Malibu beach house. Now Warren may be no Clark Kent, but he's finally had enough humiliation, and there is an alter-ego waiting to break out of that timid soul. The alter-ego is named Paul Southern. He doesn't wear a red cape, but he does sport a very unWarren-like checked jacket and no glasses. More importantly, he's got a plan, a nifty plan for revenge on his two tormentors. In the meantime, he's picked up a new girl (Charisse) who admires the forceful Southern style. So now Quimby-Southern is ready for a new life with his new girl once his nifty revenge plan succeeds.I just wish the second half succeeded as well as this riveting first half. But the focus shifts abruptly over to wise-guy cop Bonnabel (Sullivan) and we lose the compelling thread of humiliation and revenge. It's almost like the script didn't know what to do with Basehart following the Malibu showdown. The remainder of the film plays out in kind of fuzzy, not very believable fashion. It's like a screenplay in two very unequal chapters. The movie is another of Dore Schary's attempts to bring sunny MGM into the post-war world of noir. Like many of the others, the effort here only partially succeeds. There's some good location photography and an excellent cast. However, director Berry adds little to the erratic script, and I'm tempted to say that neither he nor the studio had a feel for this kind of RKO material. Nonetheless, that compelling first half remains.