THE HIDDEN ROOM / OBSESSION (1949)

Think of that gentlemanly yet vaguely sinister ‘pal’ who sets up the scam in VERTIGO/’58.  The guy James Stewart meets with after the unresolved rooftop prologue.  Here’s a chance to meet him in chrysalis, played by Robert Newton, adapted by VERTIGO collaborator Alec Coppel from his own novel.  In this story, he’s setting up a delayed murder of his wife’s latest lover, an American in London he’ll hold in the basement of a WWII ruin till the case grows cold and the bathtub can be filled with dissolving acid.  Very well handled Brit Noir by BlackListed Hollywood director Edward Dmytryk, making a pair of films in London while his case limped thru the U.S. courts.  More Hitchcockian associations pop up when an inspector calls, Naunton Wayne of THE LADY VANISHES fame, though style & a stuffy Men’s Club opening closer to Fritz Lang’s WOMAN IN THE WINDOW/’44.  Whomever it recalls, this is a dandy little thriller from Dmytryk, first of two made-in-exile British-based films before serving time Stateside, ‘Naming Names,’ and bouncing back as a Hollywood A-Lister.  (Films progressively less interesting as budgets increased.)  As the lovers, Sally Gray, in her penultimate credit, is an exceptionally chilly character (only her dog gets much affection) while Dmytryk’s fellow exile Phil Brown (a Lew Ayres type) is excellent as her lover/his prisoner.  But it’s Newton’s control, saturnine & sinister behind the manners, that leaves a mark.  And, what’s this, a score by Nino Rota?  In London?

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Dmytryk’s followup, last before his Stateside return is the better known, left-leaning CHRIST IN CONCRETE/’49.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/christ-in-concreteaka-give-us-this-day.html

CONTEST: Newton was also done in by a dog the pervious year.  Name the pic, and the dog, to win a MAKSQUIBS WriteUp of your choosing.