Director: Byron Haskin
Cast: Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, Dan Duryea, Arthur Kennedy
Have I Seen it Before: Nope.
Did I Like It: Is it really possible to not enjoy oneself for 100 minutes in a darkened room with access to M&Ms with one hand, and buttered popcorn in the other? Probably not. Thus, reviews of movies can become a little difficult at times. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching the movie, and it had almost nothing to do with the guy in the front row that hooted and hollered with every turn of the plot, or the fact that I got my final grades for the semester just as I was going into the movie…
Although it probably had a little bit to do with the snacks.
Unfortunately, this movie was more than a little weighed down by at least three points that could have easily served as an ending. That’s fatal for noir, where the stories of the best films begin to resemble a noose slowly tightening around the worst characters. Here, the noose tightens, loosens, and retightens several times. It’s like one of the Lord of the Rings movies, except with a measure more gin being poured. Interest wanes right along with the tension.
One does not want to introduce a degree of shallowness in his movie reviews, but I feel a little bit safer flirting with such a perspective when the genre is more than content to trade in it. So many characters are utterly bewitched by Jane Palmer (Scott) and her sister-in-law Kathy Palmer (Kristine Miller) is portrayed as some kind olympic level spinster. I don’t buy it, even a little bit. Mrs. Palmer never looks like she’s disinterested in murdering someone, and I guess that’s just a turn off for me.
Maybe I’m weird.