TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Michael Curtiz’ The Unsuspected (1947) with Joan Caulfield, Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Ted North, Hurd Hatfield, Jack Lambert and Barbara Woodell

By David in TN
Friday, December 3, 2021 at 7:11:00 P.M. EST

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Michael Curtiz’ The Unsuspected (1947) with Joan Caulfield, Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Ted North, Hurd Hatfield, Jack Lambert and Barbara Woodell.

Film Noir Guide: “The host of a radio murder mystery show (Rains) kills his secretary (Woodell), making it look like a suicide. Woodell’s fiance (North) shows up at Rains’ home, claiming to be the husband of Rains’ niece (Caulfield), who supposedly died in a boating accident several weeks earlier. The imposter hopes to prove that Woodell’s death was not suicide. But, unfortunately, for him, Caulfield turns up very much alive. North attempts to convince her that the reason she doesn’t remember marrying him is that she has amnesia.

Meanwhile, Rains, who’s been slowly eliminating his family, turns his attention to Caulfield. Totter plays the wife of alcoholic Hatfield, Caulfield’s former boyfriend, and Bennett is Rains’ suspicious assistant. Lambert, who proves to be one of film noir’s worst drivers, plays a murderer being blackmailed by Rains.

The convoluted plot is difficult to follow and may require a second viewing to figure out what’s really going on. But the acting is top-notch, with Rains at his deranged best, and Totter sensational as an alluring femme fatale.”