TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:30 and 10 a.m. ET is Curtis Bernhardt’s High Wall (1947) with Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter, Herbert Marshall and Dorothy Patrick

By David in TN
friday, september 27, 2024 at 6:22:00 p.m. edt

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:30 and 10 a.m. ET is Curtis Bernhardt’s High Wall (1947) with Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter, Herbert Marshall and Dorothy Patrick.

Film Noir Guide: “Former war hero Taylor returns home to his wife and six-year-old boy after two years in a civilian job in Burma. During one of his frequent blackouts, Taylor awakens to find himself behind the wheel of his car, his wife’s dead body beside him, and the cops chasing him. He drives off the road, hoping to commit suicide, but instead winds up an amnesiac in a mental institution, where a psychiatrist (Totter) convinces him to undergo brain surgery to recover his memory.

“With his memory only partially restored as a result of the operation, he remains convinced that he killed his wife. When a stranger shows up claiming to have knowledge of a third party (Marshall) at the murder scene, Taylor agrees to undergo narcosynthesis treatment to help him recall the events that led to his wife’s death.

“High Wall is a tense psychological thriller with Taylor excellent as the disturbed murder suspect, and noir veteran Totter enjoyable as the prim psychiatrist, whose interest in her patient seems to be more than professional.”

David in TN: This is another recycled film. Will Red Eddie Muller blast Robert Taylor for his HUAC testimony? Last week in his outro to Split Second, Eddie railed about the “ridiculous Cold War.” Was it ridiculous to the Communists who started and aggressively pursued it?