The film starts Gene Tierney, who is a lady, and looks like a young Joan Collins on a good day. She helps herself to some five fingered discount at a department store but gets collared by the store detective. The store is about to call the cops but then a man shows up and points outs she’s rich and not black, so they let her go - and it was a $300 mermaid pin she nicked too!
It turns out stealing is OK if you are rich, and our lady, Ann, is independently wealthy and is married to a famous psychotherapist. I couldn’t tell you the names of any psychotherapists today, but I guess in the 1940s you had to make celebrities where you can - what with ‘Love Island’ being decades away.
Ann’s saviour, David Corvo, (Jose Ferrer) calls her up the next day and asks for a meeting. Ann suspects he’s a blackmailer and writes him a cheque for $5000 but he rips it up. Is he really a nice man or has he bigger plans for the easily suggestible Ann? We quickly know he’s a wrong ‘un when he hear of his money worries on the phone; and why has he snagged that glass with Ann’s finger prints on it? Ann is also warned off David by a former conquest of his who is suing him for the $60k (200 mermaid pins in old money) he embezzled from her.
After a few sessions with our hypnotist and fortune telling bad guy, Ann heads out after picking up some recordings and heads to a remote house. When she arrives she finds the dead body of the $60k woman and no memory of how she got there. She must have been hypnotised but you can’t make a non-killer kill under hypnosis and the main suspect is in hospital recovering from a gall bladder operation.
Will Ann get the electric chair or will her husband and the police chief engineer a way to get her off?
This was a decent offering if you can blot out the bombastic and sweeping soundtrack. It was fun to see different times with the privileged few bossing about their servants and waiters with aplomb. “You can clean up later” Ann tells her black maid with a sweep of her hand. Fuck you very much you murdering klepto!
The plot was pretty straightforward and we had no doubt as to what was happening throughout. The bad buy hypnotising himself seemed a bit daft as was the method of his downfall - just have her chuck them in the fire!
Tierney was good in the lead but a bit weak and simpering. The character may have demanded that, but I’d of hoped she may have sorted something out herself rather than rely on the men folk. I liked Ferrer as the slimy baddie with his penchant for ‘making love’ to vulnerable ladies. The stiff upper lipped and bow tied wearing husband played by Richard Conte was really dull and you can see why Ann went looking for shoplifting thrills. Filling out the cast was Charles Bickford who didn’t impress as the hard as nails police chief who, for some reason, allows a murderess and her husband out for the night for a session of deus ex machina plot resolution. Oh well, he was probably lonely due to having a dead wife.
Directed by Otto Preminger the film has good credentials and is well made. A lot of what goes on seems ridiculous now, but it’s an interesting throwback and although there is not one surprise it is an entertaining ride.
Best Bit : ‘He’s a pure shit’ ‘W’ Rating : 17/23
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