Whispering Footsteps

...is how I would describe this budget feature.

It's rare for a film from 1943 in that there is no mention of WWII at all. I've even seen a MGM short from that same year about the weather that manages to get a war message shoe-horned into it.

Marcus Aurelius 'Mark" Bourne (John Hubbard) is a teller at the town bank who has just returned from vacation in Indiana. Funny to think of somebody being content with a Hoosier holiday, but I digress. He learns upon his return that somebody who looks just like him has murdered a woman not far from where he was during vacation. And then a woman is murdered not far from the town in which he lives. And the murders continue to get closer to where he actually lives. This brings the interest of an out of town cop as to Mark's whereabouts at the time of the murders, and apparently the municipality for which he works has enough money for the cop to just hang around and pester Mark for weeks on end. So everybody in this small town is looking at Mark with suspicion, and it doesn't help that he has no alibi for the time of any of the murders to the point where Mark wonders if he doesn't have some kind of split personality and is actually the murderer and just doesn't realize it. Complications ensue.

The actor who played Mark was an earnest likeable fellow who gives a good performance, and the supporting players are at least capable. But the dialogue is just not adequate. I can't figure out what the new woman in town wants from Mark and why she just continually insults him and why he comes back for more. It is also never revealed what the bank president' s daughter wants from him either to the point she'll arrange to meet him on a park bench in the middle of the night. Somehow all of these people end up having long conversations in which nothing is said , which is quite a feat in and of itself.

And everything I just mentioned, considering this was a budget production from the start would probably make this a 5 or 6 out of ten. But what kills it is the landlady's daughter who screams at the drop of a hat. Maybe the first time it would be funny, but she does it at least half a dozen times to the point I wince when I see her on camera. It really isn't the actress' fault. She was just doing what she was told by the director, but he should have realized her nerve wracking screeches were having a negative effect on the entire production. If you watch it, have your mute on hand every time she appears.