Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

LeonLouisRicci This is another Film whose Basic Plot and Characters Fit Neatly in the Noir Genre, but Not Entirely, due to Common Ingredients and Intrusions that keep this from Pure Film-Noir. Film-Noir was Truly an Inspired Zeitgeist of the Creative Filmmakers and this is an Example that included Scenes and Elements that would be Absent if it was a Conscious Crafting or a Beforehand Decision. No One stood Around Hollywood and said, "Let's make a Film-Noir". The Genre was Defined After the Fact and was Created in a Spontaneous, Subconscious, and a Collective, Creative Style that Emerged Without Pretense.The Sappy Ending, the awkward Comedy Relief, and other Conventional Mainstream Tropes are some of the Reasons that keep this in the Peripheral Noir. Although, Certain Actors, Cinematographers, and Directors seem Naturally at home in the Film-Noir Genre.Here We have Zachary Scott, whose Oddly Handsome Looks have a Patina of Psychopathy. James Wong Howe behind the Camera was a Stylist of the First Order. Style is something that Noir Embellishes a lot More than its Studio System Sisters and here He Paints some Eerie Pictures.Director Florey also Fits as some of His Films have Dark, Demented Elements and He is at His Best when He goes Off Beat from the Path of Safe used so Often and Tend to be Boring, Redundant, and Unremarkable.Faye Emerson gets Top Billing and Passes as a Conflicted Wall Flower Who Undergoes a Change from Romantically Naive Working Girl, complete with big Horn Rimmed Glasses residing in Her Mom's Protective and Loving Home. Mona Freeman is also Pretty and pretty Good as the Better Looking, but Young Girl Caught in the Killer's Charming but Lethal Web. Rosemary De Camp is quite Effective delivering Trendy Psychiatric Jargon with a Heavy Accent.Overall, there are Enough Noir Ingredients to Qualify Inclusion in the Genre, but it's Not Purebred. Still Enjoyable for its Above Average Triangular Melodrama. It's a bit Short and could have used more Breathing Room to Expand the Things that Worked and would have Improved on its Noir Status Without the Audience Friendly Stuff.

robert-temple-1 Between the ages of 30 and 51, when he died of a brain tumour, Zachary Scott made 70 films. He was introduced in 1944 in Jean Negulesco's 'The Mask of Dimitrios', where he played Dimitrios. The next year, 1945, he made three films, of which this is one. He is best remembered by cineastes as the star of Jean Renoir's 'The Southerner', one of the 1945 films, where he had a sympathetic role. However, he often played creepy characters, and in this film he is a sociopathic killer of women for money. So what happens here? He lives in a house with three women, so watch out! Faye Emerson, who also appeared in 'Dimitrios', plays the older of two daughters in the house. She falls in love with Scott and they become secretly engaged. Then her 'cute kid' younger sister (played effectively by Mona Freeman, who resembles Bonita Granville both in looks and in behaviour) returns from boarding school and reveals casually in conversation with Scott that she has inherited a tidy sum, so Scott turns his sights on her instead, with all the torrid jealousies seething in the household which that was bound to arouse. Things get tense, and then they get tenser. Meanwhile, plans for murder are going forward in the mind of the calculating Scott. But it turns out that he is not the only one with such intentions. He is also being searched for as a result of his last kill, with which the film has opened, so that we know his back story. James Wong Howe gives effective noirish cinematography to this tale, which was directed by Frenchman Robert Florey who had moved to Hollywood some time earlier. The film is an effective psychopath-in-the-house mystery which can cause a bit of wear of the edges of some seats, for those of such an inclination.

David (Handlinghandel) Robert Florey and James Wong Howe gave this a frightening, Expressionistic look. Scenes are shot at weird angles -- especially scenes involving figurative and literal lady-killer Zachary Scott. His sociopathic behavior presages another superb, medium-budget movie, "The Stepfather," by more than two decades.The entire cast is excellent, though (though no fault of her own) it's hard to think of Joyce Compton as anyone but the singer in "The Awful Truth.") Scott, Bennett, Emerson, DeCamp (especially, and though playing an older woman looking gorgeous) -- they couldn't have been topped.Setting a creepy lodger-in-the-house-of women story against a background of psychiatrists is a risky trick that pays off beautifully. Nothing corny at all.beautifully. Nothing corny at all.The resolution is a little pat, unfortunately. Not Emerson's getting together with Bennett. That makes sense. But Scott is dispatched too quickly. I seem him more as a Mr. Ripley character, who could have escaped everything -- the botulism, the murder rap, the jealous sisters -- and disappeared into the great world beyond this story. That would not have impeded the essentially happy ending of the secretary and her boss finally getting together.

whpratt1 This film was full of suspense and was well directed, the black and white effect made it a great mystery. Fay Emerson,(Hilda Fenchurch) who was married twice to the famous musician Skitch Henderson and also the son of Elliott Roosevelt, (FDR's Son) fell madly in love with Zachary Scott( Ronnie Mason/Marsh). Ronnie wins the hearts of all the ladies in the picture, even Mona Freeman(Anne Fenchurch) and proposes marriage whenever he can. Rosemary DeCamp (Dr. Jane Silla)(famous radio and tv actress in the 30's and 40's played mostly small town MOM'S) warned the ladies about Ronnie Mason's sick mind, and the abusive childhood he had when growing up, which caused his love/hate relationship with women. Fay Emerson and Zachary Scott would have been greater stars with more rewarding roles, but their lives were short lived in real life. This film is beyond critizing, it is a trully great 1945 film classic for many generations to view and enjoy!