Politics and the Devil make perfect bedfellows in this shadowy crime thriller, transplanting Goethe's Faust to a metropolitan City Hall riddled with underworld corruption. Enter Nick Beale, alias Mephistopheles (Ray Milland), with an offer no crimefighting District Attorney could refuse: he'll help clean up the riffraff and pave the way for the DA's nomination to the State Governor's office, providing of course that his client is willing to pay the proper price. The true nature of Beale's otherworldly influence unfolds with diabolic precision, but for all his sinister charm this particular Prince of Darkness is little more than a sly Sunday School magician, ale to appear and disappear at will but finally undone by the mere sight of a bible. The mood throughout is effectively sinister, but never once does the film overplay its already fantastic premise by taking itself too seriously, adding an unusual variation to the cycle of 1940's Film Noir.
Review of Alias Nick Beal
