The Guilty (1947)

Director:

John Reinhardt

Writers:

Robert Presnell Sr. (screenplay)
Cornell Woolrich (story)

Release Date:

22 March 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Film-Noir | Mystery

Tagline:

SISTERS... one led men to love... the other drove them to kill!

Plot:

Two guys, sharing an apartment, meet twin girls. One is Shirley Temple grown-up, and the other is a major piece of bad news. The nice one is murdered and her boyfriend is accused of the crime. The wrong man-wrong victim plot strikes again. |

Plot Keywords:

Twins | Flashback Sequence | Beautiful Woman | Murder

Cast

Bonita Granville	...	Estelle Mitchell / Linda Mitchell
Don Castle	...	Mike Carr
Regis Toomey	...	Detective Heller
John Litel	...	Alex Tremholt
Wally Cassell	...	Johnny Dixon
Thomas E. Jackson	...	Tim McGinnis
Netta Packer	...	Mrs. Mitchell
Oliver Blake	...	Jake, the janitor
Carol Andrews	...	Leonola Waters (as Caroline Andrews)

Runtime:

71 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1949) | USA:Approved (PCA #12185)

Company:

Monogram Pictures

Quotes:

Mike Carr: Who'd want to look at his girl for the rest of his life and be reminded of murder?

Two Bonitas makes for twice the suspense

Bonita Granville was an extremely talented younger actress, as was clear from 'The Beloved Brat' (1938) and the four Nancy Drew films she made, for instance. She had a special charm and directness which was most refreshing. Here she is, somewhat older, playing identical twins in an extremely low-budget noir thriller produced by her husband Jack Wrather. The sets are so cheap, it seems as if a puff of wind would blow them down, and they are bleak as well, perhaps on purpose to make the atmosphere one of desolation. She is certainly cast against type, since the main twin whom she plays is a bad girl, and Bonita was famous for being a sweetie pie. However, it works, and she proves she can be as sultry and venomous as any gal if she wants to, and she does want to. The two guys are Don Castle and Wally Cassell, which reminds me that Louis Ferdinand-Celine wrote a novel the English title of which is 'Castle to Castle', not bad for this situation, if we change it to 'Cassell to Castle', as one twin passes between the two guys. This is a very powerful and effective noir story with its twists and grisly side. As it is 1947, there is a guy suffering from serious shell-shock, holding his face in his hands and saying: 'I'm going to crack up completely again, like I did the first time'. There are desperate undercurrents of insane jealousy and passion, a disappearance and murder, seething resentments and kisses that are more like football touchdowns, they are so rough. For something made for ten dollars, this is a really good thriller. The voice-over narrative works extremely well, and the whole thing is a knockout if you can forgive the fact that somebody along the way forgot about the need for production values. Anyway, there's Bonita, and you even get two for the price of one.