What movie did YOU just FINISH watching?
Apr 20, 2018 19:55:01 GMT
spiderwort, teleadm, and 1 more like this
Post by Doghouse6 on Apr 20, 2018 19:55:01 GMT
The Unsuspected (1947)
Employing a visual and thematic mood I call "glam noir," this stylish 1947 thriller incorporates elements of 1944's Laura, but extends itself from who-dun-it to who-dun-what to who's-really-whom to what-really-happened, and director Michael Curtiz loads it with atmospheric flair.
Claude Rains reveals yet another dimension to his seemingly inexhaustible supply of colorful characterizations as elegant radio mystery-story host Victor Grandison...
...("Grandy" to intimates), who presides over an opulent manor befitting his name and is suddenly surrounded by unexpected deaths. Others of equal color in his orbit are sophisticated Constance Bennett as a loyal (maybe) assistant, Audrey Totter as an embittered, money-and-man-hungry niece, Hurd Hatfield as her hard-drinking wastrel husband, Joan Caulfield as another niece, recently perished in a maritime disaster (or did she?), Fred Clark as a helpful (perhaps) friend and associate and Ted North* as a mysterious stranger claiming to be the unknown-to-all husband of Caulfield (or is he?).
*A curiosity: billed in this - and no other - film as Michael North, and preceded by "And Introducing" in both the credits and poster art above, it was the last of 22 films he made in a brief screen career lasting only 7 years, after which he became an agent.
Beyond its senses of style and characterization, an element of what makes The Unsuspected so much fun are the layers it reveals by way of unanticipated revelations about these characters, their histories and motivations: they're the opposite of red herrings; just as viewers feel they have a fix on anyone's place in the scheme of things, artful curves are thrown about who they are or what they're actually up to.
In construction, it's rather like a Columbo, in the sense that the killer's identity (while not explicitly revealed but at first copiously telegraphed) is really no surprise, and that the enjoyment is in the journey to an inevitable destination, with all the twists, turns, improvisations and byplay occurring along the way.
Employing a visual and thematic mood I call "glam noir," this stylish 1947 thriller incorporates elements of 1944's Laura, but extends itself from who-dun-it to who-dun-what to who's-really-whom to what-really-happened, and director Michael Curtiz loads it with atmospheric flair.
Claude Rains reveals yet another dimension to his seemingly inexhaustible supply of colorful characterizations as elegant radio mystery-story host Victor Grandison...
...("Grandy" to intimates), who presides over an opulent manor befitting his name and is suddenly surrounded by unexpected deaths. Others of equal color in his orbit are sophisticated Constance Bennett as a loyal (maybe) assistant, Audrey Totter as an embittered, money-and-man-hungry niece, Hurd Hatfield as her hard-drinking wastrel husband, Joan Caulfield as another niece, recently perished in a maritime disaster (or did she?), Fred Clark as a helpful (perhaps) friend and associate and Ted North* as a mysterious stranger claiming to be the unknown-to-all husband of Caulfield (or is he?).
*A curiosity: billed in this - and no other - film as Michael North, and preceded by "And Introducing" in both the credits and poster art above, it was the last of 22 films he made in a brief screen career lasting only 7 years, after which he became an agent.
Beyond its senses of style and characterization, an element of what makes The Unsuspected so much fun are the layers it reveals by way of unanticipated revelations about these characters, their histories and motivations: they're the opposite of red herrings; just as viewers feel they have a fix on anyone's place in the scheme of things, artful curves are thrown about who they are or what they're actually up to.
In construction, it's rather like a Columbo, in the sense that the killer's identity (while not explicitly revealed but at first copiously telegraphed) is really no surprise, and that the enjoyment is in the journey to an inevitable destination, with all the twists, turns, improvisations and byplay occurring along the way.