Jealousy (1945)

Director:

Gustav Machatý

Writers:

Gustav Machatý (writer)
Arnold Phillips (writer)

Release Date:

23 July 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Film-Noir | Mystery

Plot:

The wife of an alcoholic writer must take a job as a taxi driver to make ends meet. A young man she picks up as a fare befriends her, but when her husband is found murdered, the police suspect she and her new "friend" committed the murder. |

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Writer | Beautiful Woman | Husband Wife Relationship | Alcoholism

Cast

John Loder	...	Dr. David Brent
Jane Randolph	...	Janet Urban
Karen Morley	...	Dr. Monica Anderson
Nils Asther	...	Peter Urban
Hugo Haas	...	Hugo Kral
Holmes Herbert	...	Melvyn Russell
Michael Mark	...	Shop Owner
Mauritz Hugo	...	Bob
Peggy Leon	...	Secretary
Mary Arden	...	Nurse
Noble 'Kid' Chissel	...	Expressman

Runtime:

71 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Company:

Republic Pictures

European stylistic flourishes enhance this melo.

Despite such clichéd dialogue as: "...Something has come between us. What is it?" "You wouldn't dare!" "Oh wouldn't I!" and "I feel a strange foreboding," the film does manage to transcend it's pulpy romantic triangle plot.

This is achieved mostly through a European influenced, "downbeat" atmosphere at odds with the conventionally optimistic American take on life, (this is light years from "It's a Wonderful Life," though both films deal with masculine bread-winner failure).

Indeed, the film seems to have considerable sympathy for Nils Asther's ex-patriate European writer who, disaffected by his new environs, can't make the grade once in the states, and turns to drink and self pity.

But it is through mood rather than scripting that the film earns it's keep, specifically some effective, (if occasionally heavy handed)stylistic flourishes. Thus we have an abundance of tilted camera angles, great looming shadows of creeping figures on the walls at night, dead sea gulls, repeated musical motifs--Brahms etc, (the film bears some stylistic traits in common with with "Strange Illusion")etc.

Most interesting of all is the re-appearance of the same living room setting previously used in "Strange Illusion," "Fog Island" and "I Accuse My Parents." Here slightly re-dressed and reconfigured, it serves as the drawing room of John Loder's character. All of which is doubly odd, since this film is a Republic production, and makes one wonder why they were sharing sound stages and settings with rival PRC.