By David in TN
Saturday, September 10, 2022 at 12:05:00 a.m. edt
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 am ET is Edward Dmytryk’s Obsession (1949) with Robert Newton, Sally Gray, Phil Brown and Naunton Wayne.
Also known as The Hidden Room.
Film Noir Guide: “Anglo-American relations are put to the test when an American (Brown) becomes romantically involved with the wife of a British psychiatrist (Newton). Fed up with his wife’s straying indiscretions, Newton decides to murder her newest lover.”
“He kidnaps the unlucky Brown and for months keeps him chained to a bed in the cellar of a bombed-out building, waiting for just the right time, when he can be sure that Scotland Yard does not suspect him. In the meantime, he prepares an acid bath to dispose of the body. The perfect crime. Or is it?”
“Newton’s wife (Gray) suspects that he’s murdered Brown, but the fear of scandal keeps her from reporting her suspicions to the police. An annoyingly persistent Scotland Yard superintendent (Wayne) is on the case and, if that’s not enough to delay Newton's murderous intentions, there’s also a surprise nemesis in Gray’s little dog (see The Man with My Face, The Killing, and Lady Gangster for other doggie spoilers).”
“This is an enjoyable and effective British suspensor with Newton (TV’s Long John Silver) quite good as the cuckolded psychiatrist, and Brown equally competent as his likeable prisoner.”
David in TN: Eddie Muller gushed over Hit and Run, last week’s offering, calling director-star Hugo Haas “a brilliant auteur, I like the guy.”
I thought it was the worst movie ever shown on Noir Alley.
N.S.: Red Eddie also gushed about Native Son, an early racist message movie, which may have been the worst picture of its period.
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TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 am ET is Maxwell Shane's The Naked Street (1955) with Anthony Quinn, Farley Granger, Anne Bancroft, Peter Graves, Else Neft.
Film Noir Guide: "Quinn plays a brutal New York crime chieftain who, between murders, pays a weekly visit to his elderly mother (Neft) and sister (Bancroft) doe dinner at their Brooklyn apartment."
"When he learns that Bancroft is pregnant and that the father (Granger) is in prison awaiting execution for killing a liquor store owner during a robbery, Quinn quickly makes arrangements to get the father-to-be released. After hiring a prominent attorney, Quinn has his goons torture two eyewitnesses until they agree to change their testimony."
"Granger, feeling pretty lucky to have escaped the chair, is more than happy to make an honest woman out of Bancroft, especially since it means marrying into the big time. But Quinn, who doesn't like the punk, hires him to drive one of his trucks at an insulting 80 bucks a week."
"The conflict between the two men reaches the danger point when Granger, pushing his luck, starts cheating on Bancroft. Told in flashbacks by a reporter (Graves), The Naked Street is an average crime drama with Quinn and Bancroft giving top-notch performances."
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