While I never found Preminger's "Laura" or "Angel Face" on par with the film noir masterpieces such as "Out of the Past" and "The Lady From Shangai", they still deserve their high reputation in the genre, for they are superbly crafted full of some interesting characters. Such is the same of this movie: it may leave me a bit cold (as the murder mystery is the drive of the story, not the otherwise enriching characters- Laura suffers from the same), but its still VERY entertaining with great performances and that wonderful pessimism on American life film noir is known for.
(minor spoilers within) Gene Tierney to start with, is beautiful, just looking at her gives the film an extra star. Here, she plays a very repressed housewife, who looks the joys in life not through domesticity, but by relieving the thrill of her childhood, which was stealing. She's one of those great mixes in film noir of the noir-heroine and the femme fatale, while she may be on the right side of the law, she certainly is not pleased with society's assigned role of housewife (as her marriage offers her nothing) and so rebels against it.
This has its consequences, as she falls prey to Jose Ferrer, as a quack astrologer and a skilled (yet egotistic) hypnotist. Ferrer plays this role with style, he's a big scumbag (a murderer, blackmailer, and there are remote possibilities that he made Tierney do more then clean up his dirty work), but he does this with class, I could still buy why Tierney (and others, such as his society friends) decided to trust a man who had given her plenty of warning signs.
The rest of the principle players are fine, but nothing outstanding. Richard Conte is hopelessly miscast as Tierney's genius psychoanalyst husband. His thick city accent looks stupid in his role. Charles Bickford, playing a bitter and cold detective, fairs well, but his character goes through a sudden change of heart that needed time to develop, and in the end is just in their to help wrap up the story.
Overall, a flawed, yet underrated work (however deserves more praise, but not too much) from Otto Preminger, with both Gene Tierney (who is always worth watching) and Jose Ferrer a pleasure to watch.
(minor spoilers within) Gene Tierney to start with, is beautiful, just looking at her gives the film an extra star. Here, she plays a very repressed housewife, who looks the joys in life not through domesticity, but by relieving the thrill of her childhood, which was stealing. She's one of those great mixes in film noir of the noir-heroine and the femme fatale, while she may be on the right side of the law, she certainly is not pleased with society's assigned role of housewife (as her marriage offers her nothing) and so rebels against it.
This has its consequences, as she falls prey to Jose Ferrer, as a quack astrologer and a skilled (yet egotistic) hypnotist. Ferrer plays this role with style, he's a big scumbag (a murderer, blackmailer, and there are remote possibilities that he made Tierney do more then clean up his dirty work), but he does this with class, I could still buy why Tierney (and others, such as his society friends) decided to trust a man who had given her plenty of warning signs.
The rest of the principle players are fine, but nothing outstanding. Richard Conte is hopelessly miscast as Tierney's genius psychoanalyst husband. His thick city accent looks stupid in his role. Charles Bickford, playing a bitter and cold detective, fairs well, but his character goes through a sudden change of heart that needed time to develop, and in the end is just in their to help wrap up the story.
Overall, a flawed, yet underrated work (however deserves more praise, but not too much) from Otto Preminger, with both Gene Tierney (who is always worth watching) and Jose Ferrer a pleasure to watch.