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1.4 KiB
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1 line
1.4 KiB
Plaintext
I love film noir. And this was new to me, amazingly. So I definitely enjoyed it.<br /><br />However, it is not good. The plot has red herrings and scenes unrelated to anything else more than any other movie by a major director hat I can think of.<br /><br />OK. It doesn't make much sense. The narrative logic is filled with holes.<br /><br />Still, it is enjoyable.<br /><br />First off, my hat is off to Nancy Guild. I swear I had never heard of her before this. But, even at age 19, she's very good. She beautiful -- a little like Alexis Smith and even more like one of my great favorites Patricia Neal. She is no Duse but she does an excellent job in a pivotal role.<br /><br />John Hodiak is good, though perhaps encouraged to overdo the vacant looks even when the amnesia plot seems to have been forgotten.<br /><br />Margo Woode, with what looks like a bird's nest on her head, is lots of fun as a bad girl. And Josephine Hutchinson is very poignant in a small scene that doesn't seem to me to make sense in the overall plot but has an exciting payoff: Her scream through a window saves our hero from being run over.<br /><br />The others are good, of course. Lloyd Nolan always was. Ditto Richard Conte. Lou Nova is strangely affecting in a small role.<br /><br />This is a sprawling big-studio noir from the forties. The short, cheaply made ones are often better. And often they aren't. One never knows on the street of dreams. |