Egads, what a creepy, strange film, and I mean that in the best possible way.
"The Prowler" is film noir at its weirdest, which for this film noir lover is synonymous with most entertaining. Van Heflin plays a psychopath cop who begins pretty much stalking Evelyn Keyes after being summoned to her house to investigate a peeping tom. He kills her husband in what is outright murder but which he stages as justifiable homicide so that they can run off and get married. But only a few days into their marriage, Keyes announces to him that she's four months pregnant with his baby, and he convinces her that they need to go hide out in an old abandoned ghost town until after she's had the baby, because he's afraid that if people find out they were getting it on before the husband's death, a proverbial can of worms will be opened.
All of this plays out as strangely as it sounds on paper. I found myself more than once thinking "WHERE is this movie going?" One criticism you most certainly cannot level at it is predictability.
Heflin is excellent as the kooky cop, and Keyes was one of the best noir dames. In this one, you spend the first half of the film willing her character to resist the passes of what is clearly a nut job, and the second half saying "I told you so" as she catches up with the audience and realizes Heflin is off his rocker.
This movie has cult classic written all over it.
Grade: A
"The Prowler" is film noir at its weirdest, which for this film noir lover is synonymous with most entertaining. Van Heflin plays a psychopath cop who begins pretty much stalking Evelyn Keyes after being summoned to her house to investigate a peeping tom. He kills her husband in what is outright murder but which he stages as justifiable homicide so that they can run off and get married. But only a few days into their marriage, Keyes announces to him that she's four months pregnant with his baby, and he convinces her that they need to go hide out in an old abandoned ghost town until after she's had the baby, because he's afraid that if people find out they were getting it on before the husband's death, a proverbial can of worms will be opened.
All of this plays out as strangely as it sounds on paper. I found myself more than once thinking "WHERE is this movie going?" One criticism you most certainly cannot level at it is predictability.
Heflin is excellent as the kooky cop, and Keyes was one of the best noir dames. In this one, you spend the first half of the film willing her character to resist the passes of what is clearly a nut job, and the second half saying "I told you so" as she catches up with the audience and realizes Heflin is off his rocker.
This movie has cult classic written all over it.
Grade: A