I didn't find this picture particularly noirish as a fair number of reviewers here have. Specifically, there's no conflicted femme fatale, and the death that's central to the story occurred in a car accident as opposed to murder. What makes the picture effective is it's clever set-up as a psychological thriller. It focuses the viewer entirely in the direction of Robert Young's character turning into a delusional man affected by paranoia and a guilt complex over the loss of his fiancée a year earlier. That theme is reinforced by the odds defying streak of bad luck he endures, with one unfortunate incident after another effectively presented as if he might have caused them himself.
The other players in this drama are cleverly positioned to add further testimony to Jeff Cohalon's (Young) string of misfortune. You have to wonder how this might have turned out if Ellen Foster (Betsy Drake) hadn't shown up, an insurance investigator with a keen sense of probabilities that can be borne out by actuarial statistics. With everything that befalls architect Cohalon in succession, his bad luck is just a little too bad to be true.
I was able to accept a lot of the story as it moved along until it came time to resolving some of the key plot elements. The biggest leap of faith Cohalon had to make was that someone would make the save in his elaborately planned suicide attempt. Think about it, he siphoned off enough gasoline from his car's tank to insure that the motor would stop running in case someone didn't come quick enough. I admit, that was a nifty ploy that gave the viewer pause to consider he might strike again as an arsonist at the Foster home. But he WAS unconscious when pulled from the garage, and might not have survived even when he was found. That's just too close a call to take to smoke out a villain.
So given the hint that there could be a villain, a couple of prospects come to mind. Ferris (John Sutton) appeared to be vile enough, and even though he was the one responsible for the death of Cohalon's fiancée (shown in a flashback explanation), I bought it when Jeff explained his reason for a cover up was to spare Ben Sheppard (Henry O'Neill) the truth about his daughter. So that left Sheppard himself with a revenge motive. Fair enough, but even after learning the truth, how does that let him off the hook for poisoning Jeff's dog and rose bush, crippling the horse and all the other nasties on the way to getting him committed.
And finally, there's Doctor Hartley (Morris Carnovsky), who concluded that Cohalon was unstable enough to cause harm to Ellen and her aunt Amelia (Florence Bates). But then, in the next to final scene, he states to Amelia that he suspected Ben Sheppard of being a psychopath FROM THE BEGINNING! What??!! That just came out of nowhere, and would have been best left on the cutting room floor. Coupled with the confrontation scene in Sheppard's office, the ending was just a little sloppy to tie the whole thing together.
Still, the path to the finale is made fairly intriguing by some deft writing that really makes for a compelling story. The set-ups and red herrings are positioned as effective sleight of hand gimmicks to keep the viewer guessing and for the most part it all works pretty well. The principal players (Young and Drake) could have been more charismatic, but at least they were solid in their roles, and you could believe their characters as the story progressed. I think a modern day remake with some of the bugs worked out could be an effective thriller, and would be an interesting project to contemplate.
The other players in this drama are cleverly positioned to add further testimony to Jeff Cohalon's (Young) string of misfortune. You have to wonder how this might have turned out if Ellen Foster (Betsy Drake) hadn't shown up, an insurance investigator with a keen sense of probabilities that can be borne out by actuarial statistics. With everything that befalls architect Cohalon in succession, his bad luck is just a little too bad to be true.
I was able to accept a lot of the story as it moved along until it came time to resolving some of the key plot elements. The biggest leap of faith Cohalon had to make was that someone would make the save in his elaborately planned suicide attempt. Think about it, he siphoned off enough gasoline from his car's tank to insure that the motor would stop running in case someone didn't come quick enough. I admit, that was a nifty ploy that gave the viewer pause to consider he might strike again as an arsonist at the Foster home. But he WAS unconscious when pulled from the garage, and might not have survived even when he was found. That's just too close a call to take to smoke out a villain.
So given the hint that there could be a villain, a couple of prospects come to mind. Ferris (John Sutton) appeared to be vile enough, and even though he was the one responsible for the death of Cohalon's fiancée (shown in a flashback explanation), I bought it when Jeff explained his reason for a cover up was to spare Ben Sheppard (Henry O'Neill) the truth about his daughter. So that left Sheppard himself with a revenge motive. Fair enough, but even after learning the truth, how does that let him off the hook for poisoning Jeff's dog and rose bush, crippling the horse and all the other nasties on the way to getting him committed.
And finally, there's Doctor Hartley (Morris Carnovsky), who concluded that Cohalon was unstable enough to cause harm to Ellen and her aunt Amelia (Florence Bates). But then, in the next to final scene, he states to Amelia that he suspected Ben Sheppard of being a psychopath FROM THE BEGINNING! What??!! That just came out of nowhere, and would have been best left on the cutting room floor. Coupled with the confrontation scene in Sheppard's office, the ending was just a little sloppy to tie the whole thing together.
Still, the path to the finale is made fairly intriguing by some deft writing that really makes for a compelling story. The set-ups and red herrings are positioned as effective sleight of hand gimmicks to keep the viewer guessing and for the most part it all works pretty well. The principal players (Young and Drake) could have been more charismatic, but at least they were solid in their roles, and you could believe their characters as the story progressed. I think a modern day remake with some of the bugs worked out could be an effective thriller, and would be an interesting project to contemplate.