ThiefHott Too much of everything

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

JohnHowardReid Producer: Henry Blanke. A Thomson Production. A Warner Bros - First National Picture. Executive producer: Jack L. Warner. Copyright 16 August 1947 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 18 July 1947. U.S. release: 16 August 1947. U.K. release: 15 March 1948. Australian release: 13 May 1948. 7,605 feet. 84½ minutes.SYNOPSIS: Mysterious happenings in an old house involve a young widow, a neurotic girl and a suspicious "scientist".COMMENT: When I tell people I admire the work of Peter Godfrey, they usually look at me with pity. After a great deal of argument, they will usually admit that The Woman in White has some virtue, but they are reluctant to see the supreme joys of Hotel Berlin and The Two Mrs Carrolls, let alone the admittedly minor pleasures of He's a Cockeyed Wonder.Cry Wolf is Godfrey's masterpiece. A most unusual vehicle for Flynn (who seems to be the heavy), it is a taut thriller, atmospherically directed with lots of tingling camera movement and suspenseful lighting. Godfrey's pacing is crisp, never letting attention sag or wander, his choice of camera angles is consistently dramatic and he has drawn tight, convincing performances from his players.Barbara Stanwyck in a well-tailored role as the resourceful heroine excites plenty of audience sympathy. Also ideally cast are Richard Basehart and Geraldine Brooks in typically edgy impersonations, while Errol Flynn manages to surround his less typed part with a nice edge of menace. The character players have less to do, though Jerome Cowan scores with agreeable force as Senator Caldwell.Photography, sets and music join with the direction in making the most of the thrills the script so abundantly provides. Marjorie Carleton's novel is not known to me. Certainly it has all the ingredients of the popular Gothic romance. Although these ingredients may have been dulled by familiarity and constant over-use, they are given fresh, nervy life on the screen. It's impossible not to enjoy the film, to be completely "taken in" by its story, atmosphere and effects. The headlong pace, persuasive performances and bravura direction all see to that. And though the resolution to the mystery has been criticized in some quarters, I found it thoroughly convincing.

GManfred I disagree with all the reviewers who disagree with me. This was a tense, suspenseful melodrama which I feel has gotten a bad rap since it came out. The mood of the film is ominous and unsettling throughout and benefits from excellent acting jobs from the two stars. Barbara Stanwyck almost never gives a bad performance and does not disappoint, but the big surprise here is Errol Flynn. In "Cry Wolf" he shows unexpected depth and nuance - this from an actor known for one-dimensional action/ swashbuckling roles, in addition to his off-screen antics as a swordsman. Who knew he was capable of such acting?More disagreement. I thought the script was intelligent and that the pacing was good and that the ending was not a lame copout. It did not rely on its star performances and it kept you guessing right up to the end. I never took a movie course but I know what I like, to coin a borrowed phrase, and this was a good picture. I will have to say I was going to award Geraldine Brooks the Hand-Painted Mustache Cup as Hambone Actress of 1947, but I passed because it was her screen debut.But don't take my word. Decide for yourself if it's a quick, exciting 83 minutes. That's what makes horse racing.

theowinthrop I think it is generally acknowledged that Errol Flynn's best film work was in those films that combined his charm and his athletic abilities, be they swashbucklers, boxing films, or westerns. But as he got older Flynn was determined to prove his acting abilities. He could act when he was generally interested in the film he appeared in, but he was frequently willing to try to do a film that was unusual. This did not always work too well. He made such interesting failures as THE SISTERS with Bette Davis, where he was a newspaper reporter in turn of the century San Francisco, who had a wanderjahr that interfered with his marriage. The film wasn't bad, but his part was weak - the antithesis of the type he usually played so well. In the late 1940s to 1950 he tried three films to broaden his scope of acting: CRY WOLF, THAT FORSYTE WOMAN, and SILVER RIVER. Only the last one, a western where he played a man who was carried away by ambitious and greed so that he becomes relatively unsympathetic, was successful. THAT FORSYTE WOMAN (with Greer Garson and Walter Pigeon) was interesting (Flynn as Soames Forsythe was interesting casting, but he was too stiff - Eric Porter's memorable Soames in the first BBC version of the Galsworthy stories in the 1960s was far more human). CRY WOLF, the present film, was Flynn's only real attempt at the noir style of movie. As such it begins well, but collapses due to a poor script.Barbara Stanwyck has married Richard Basehart, the nephew of Flynn, before the movie began. Flynn, Basehart, Jerome Cowan, and Geraldine Brooks are the scions of a "Kennedy" style family, with money and political power (Cowan is a U.S. Senator). But Basehart has vanished, and Stanwyck, besides trying to prove her marriage, is determined to find her husband. And here she keeps running into Flynn's suspicious behavior. He seems very unsympathetic to her wishes, and quite cold most of the time. As for helping her locate Basehart, he keeps on throwing up roadblocks.The problem is that having set a good stage for a film which would have been confronting Stanwyck's heroine with Flynn's villain, the script fell apart. It turns out Flynn is interested in protecting the family's name and it's members from outside scrutiny. In particular Basehart and Brooks, who are somewhat strange. This change in the script was meant to enable Stanwick and Flynn to gradually fall in love and end up together, but it smashed the suspense that such a film should generate, and it ruined Flynn from having a potentially interesting negative part. Actually his performance in SILVER RIVER was far more consistent, and even his Soames retains the audience's lack of sympathy to the end. In CRY WOLF the audience gets confused - should we hiss Flynn or cheer him on? It would have been better all around if the screenplay writers had let us hiss him to the end.

Ripshin The leads perform admirably, the set is fantastic, and the supporting characters well chosen, but overall, this film tends to fall apart, with its obvious "surprise" twist telegraphed quite early in the film.Obviously influenced by "Jane Eyre," the plot intrigues during the first 45 minutes, but fails to hold onto its mystique.Stanwyck is her usual wonderful self, and Flynn holds his own in a decidedly unusual role, for him. Brooks is a tad much, and Basehart is indeed wasted.Certainly, a film worth watching, but more for the atmosphere than the storyline.