MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

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

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

LeonLouisRicci Not bad, but aside from the "surprise" last denouement, quite an unremarkable period piece. A heavy bit of Melodrama with some interesting Dialog exchanges. It all seems rather confined and is not as much gloomy as it is less roomy.Things are strung together with as much threading as necessary but it does seem to ramble a bit and is lesser for it. The suspense suffers as things can get a bit talky with much ado about drinking and fortunes.But it is Worth a Watch for its sums are better than the parts and it comes together nicely, if suddenly, and makes the experience worthwhile. There are some offbeat Characters and some nice interplay, but in the end it could have used more tension and less talk.

Robert J. Maxwell Joseph Cotton is Dupin, the hard-drinking literary guy in a black cloak. He becomes acquainted with M. Thevernet (Louis Calhern) in New York City in 1848. Calhern is a sick old man who drinks too much and is being watched night and day by his wife, Barbara Stanwyck, and his butler, Joe DeSantis, both of whom are just waiting for Calhern to kick the bucket so they can inherit his money. However, Leslie Caron shows up, a young French woman begging for some of Calhern's loot to aid her brother who is involved in a revolution in France. Calhern writes a new will, leaving Caron a generous portion of his estate, but hides it and there follows a final ironic resolution in which people get their just deserts.At first, I thought the writer, Frank Fenton, adopting a John Dickson Carr story, might have OD'd during a binge on the collected works of Edgar Allen Poe. Too many coincidental things going on. Cotton's character is "Dupin," as in August Dupin, the detective in two of Poe's short stories? And Dupin quotes aloud from "The Raven" without having to read it? Okay -- but before Poe even WROTE it? And that Raven, Villon, who perches at the foot of the dying man's bed. All these literary intrusions began ringing bells -- bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, and more bells -- until they began tintinabulating.I don't know why the story was set in New York, which never had much of a French presence -- mainly Dutch, English, and a little Swedish. New Orleans would have been more apt, since it had been French for a long time and was to remain culturally French for another century or more. But then, of course, as we discover at the end, New Orleans happens to be a city in which the man in the cloak never set foot.The dialog is highly stylized. People say things like, "Perhaps you would like another drink before you go." "You would" -- not "you'd." And "perhaps", rather than "maybe." This technique induces a proper amount of estrangement -- in the sense of distance, not animosity -- and is useful in suggesting that a foreign language is being spoken. It's less successful in suggesting 1848 in New York, as Martin Scorsese realized. And it simply doesn't seem natural coming from a miscast Barbara Stanwyck, who really belongs in movies like "Double Indemnity" and "Clash by Night." Stanwyck is a tough broad, not a poseur.I don't know why some people have squeezed this into the noir genre because all it really is, is a drama with some mystery and character exploration in it. I found it pretty entertaining despite the stilted dialog and the occasional clumsily directed scene. (Two obvious stunt doubles in a fist fight.) Joe De Santis is no more than adequate as the villainous butler. Leslie Caron is hardly present. But Margaret Wycherly as the housekeeper is pretty good. So is Jim Backus as Flaherty, the friendly bartender. And Joseph Cotton is refined and effective, even if he doesn't display the simmering anger and racism of his historical forbear.Diverting show. Not bad.

kyle_furr This is a pretty poor attempt at a thriller. None of the characters are interesting and the plot is total crap. Joseph Cotten plays a drunk and his identity his hidden until the end, and even his identity is a bunch of crap. Barbara Stanwyck does the best she can with a badly written script. Stay Away.

Neil Doyle Barbara Stanwyck did most of her film noir in modern detective stories and mostly with some flashy emoting. Here she and Joseph Cotten underplay considerably in what amounts to a tepid melodrama of the gaslight era in Victorian London--dripping with atmosphere but short on any real suspense or conflict. Except for the modest surprise at the conclusion, there is nothing much to recommend here.A nice cast includes Louis Calhern, Margaret Wycherly and a miscast Leslie Caron as a French waif innocently unaware of the deception until Joseph Cotten helps her get to the root of the mystery surrounding the death of wealthy Louis Calhern. Miss Caron is clearly out of her element in this one.Calhern makes the most of his role--in fact, the only member of the cast given to a more elaborate style of acting which generates more interest in the lackluster tale than it deserves.Disappointing considering the talent involved--a slight mystery with an even slighter payoff at the end. Miss Stanwyck is coldly efficient as the housekeeper but the script is too weak for even a strong actress to overcome.