Solid direction from little-known Daniel Birt (dead at 47 after just 12 features) makes all the difference in turning this modestly clever BritNoir programmer into something special. Richard Todd is particularly good as a failing novelist, married to loyal but disappointed Valerie Hobson, now getting cold-feet as he runs off via train with the wife of his publisher. And that's when his unscheduled emergency stop to hop off and go back home causes a major train collision with dozens killed, including the adulteress. This is where the film becomes something unique for movie mavens with Act Two playing out like a compressed Alfred Hitchcock thriller with circumstantial evidence trapping Todd as calm Inspector Tom Walls closes in. (Todd might be playing CRIME & PUNISHMENT’s Raskolnikov to Detective Walls’ Porifry.) Just don’t trust that Act Two conclusion, it’s a fake-out to set up even worse charges Todd must disprove while on the run in an Act Three that leans more toward Fritz Lang in Hollywood.* Fortunately, a short running time (77") doesn’t give you time to nitpick logic, but just enough space to savor how Birt is enjoying himself.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Hitchcock undoubtedly had a good hard look at this, hiring Richard Todd to run with similar lies, half-truths and ambivalent tone as one of the leads in next year’s STAGE FRIGHT/’50. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/07/stage-fright-1950.html OR: Lang’s THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW/’44 for clues on where some of those twists came from . . . and where Birt picked up that ending. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2009/08/woman-in-window-1944.html
No comments:
Post a Comment