Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Quick Reviews: Whirlpool (1949), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

"WHIRLPOOL" (1949)
-
Sinister, dueling psychoanalyst-thriller feels like an easy Hitchcockian exercise with a fragile heroine, elaborate murder plot and a classic villain, the demented hypnotist David Korvo, played mercilessly by José Ferrer.
-
Targeting a rival psychologists' hapless, delicate wife (Gene Tierney), Korvo unleashes his scheme, which unfolds (and concludes) perhaps a bit too predictably. Yet the film has an economical, hard-boiled veracity that's easy to admire. [B-] 
-
"WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS" (1950)
-
This Laura reunion (reuniting director Otto Preminger with stars Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney) has all of the necessary elements of a prototypical film noir - cynical detective, angelic femme fatale, textbook fatalism - but its conclusion is overly generous. 
-
Andrews is superb as the short-tempered copper whose mistakes lead to his precarious situation which involves covering up a murder and an innocent man's life. If only it stuck with its convictions till the end.  [B]

No comments:

Post a Comment