Many people compared it to "Hamlet " ,but actually the plot is not very shakespearian ; and anyway,from "the lion king" to "the stepfather" , lots of movies repeat the story of the widow-with-son-who-wants-to-marry-again. (and the newcomer is perhaps a murderer).
It belongs to the" psychoanalysis" craze of the forties , along with "spellbound" , "secret beyond the door" ,"the dark mirror" ......even more Freudian ,because the son hates his mom's fiancé ,in spite of his boy-next-door look .His youthful face displays a grown up kid ;the results are not perhaps as absorbing as the films I mention above ,but it's not devoid of qualities.
The beginning is downright unsettling : the hero introduces himself and then we see him lost in horrible nightmares ;premonitory dreams in fact ; and to help him getting through the night (the fog ) ,there's a good doctor he almost considers his substitute father .When one meets the fiancé,not only he's an intruder but it also reminds the hero of elements of his dreams.Enter a shrink who urges the young man to be treated in his sanatorium as a "guest "; a strange hospital ,in which all patients are guests, but they are locked at night, a two-way mirror and binoculars who help the psychiatrist to spy on his patients.
On the other hand, the trick of the truck is too implausible and the ending is too hurried for comfort.
It's an honest film noir though.
It belongs to the" psychoanalysis" craze of the forties , along with "spellbound" , "secret beyond the door" ,"the dark mirror" ......even more Freudian ,because the son hates his mom's fiancé ,in spite of his boy-next-door look .His youthful face displays a grown up kid ;the results are not perhaps as absorbing as the films I mention above ,but it's not devoid of qualities.
The beginning is downright unsettling : the hero introduces himself and then we see him lost in horrible nightmares ;premonitory dreams in fact ; and to help him getting through the night (the fog ) ,there's a good doctor he almost considers his substitute father .When one meets the fiancé,not only he's an intruder but it also reminds the hero of elements of his dreams.Enter a shrink who urges the young man to be treated in his sanatorium as a "guest "; a strange hospital ,in which all patients are guests, but they are locked at night, a two-way mirror and binoculars who help the psychiatrist to spy on his patients.
On the other hand, the trick of the truck is too implausible and the ending is too hurried for comfort.
It's an honest film noir though.