Fear (1946)

A medical student--broke, hungry and desperate for money--is hired to murder a loan shark. After the killing he is tormented by guilt over what he's done. A detective, who knows the student... See full summary »

Director:

Alfred Zeisler

Writers:

Dennis J. Cooper (original screenplay), Alfred Zeisler (original screenplay),

Stars:

Peter Cookson, Warren William, Anne Gwynne

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Peter Cookson	...	Larry Crain
Warren William	...	Police Capt. Burke
Anne Gwynne	...	Eileen Stevens
Francis Pierlot	...	Prof. Stanley
Nestor Paiva	...	Detective Shaefer
James Cardwell	...	Ben - a Student
Almira Sessions	...	Mrs. Williams - Landlady
William Moss	...	Al
Harry Clay	...	Student
Johnny Strong	...	Student
Ernie Adams	...	House Painter
Charles Calvert	...	Doc

Storyline

A medical student--broke, hungry and desperate for money--is hired to murder a loan shark. After the killing he is tormented by guilt over what he's done. A detective, who knows the student committed the crime but can't prove it, plays on the young man's guilt in order to get him to confess to the crime.

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Plot Keywords:

detective | murder | based on novel

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Genres:

Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 March 1946 (USA)

Also Known As:

Black Tower

Company Credits

Production Co:

Monogram Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

68 min 27 min (TV) (edited)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Re-titled, and edited down to less than thirty minutes, it was sold to television in the early 1950's as part of a syndicated half hour mystery show.

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Connections

Version of Crime and Punishment (1970)

User Reviews

A nightmare is a wish your heart makes...

The dream (or nightmare) structure was a staple of the noir cycle; The Woman in the Window, Fear in the Night, and its remake Nightmare were some of the films that employed this device. Far from a cop-out, it was a way of packaging a rather subtle psychological insight: that our dreams expressed our conflicts between our superegos and our ids. (In a later film with noirish roots, Brian De Palma's Body Double, the "story" of the movie similarly sketched the protagonist's worst self-estimation, triggered by a claustrophobic episode.)

In Fear, a medical student (Peter Cookson) is on the brink of abandoning school because his money has run out; in frustration, he murders a professor who moonlights as a pawnbroker. Questioned by the police, he ill-advisedly spouts warmed-over Nietzsche like the effete killers in Hitchcock's Rope. Then, out of the blue, a scholarly periodical to which he submitted an article sends him a check for $1000 (!) -- the most implausible occurrence in the entire noir cyle. He grows more reckless, and suspicion continues to grow....

Fear was a low-budget Monogram programmer (clocking in at just over an hour) but looks a lot better, angled and shadowed like more lavish productions. It won't satisfy the literal-minded, but it's a decent enough way to while away a dark hour.