FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

clanciai He is a middle aged bachelor of some stability and position, when he sees a fascinating portrait in a window of a lady, and in the next moment sees the lady herself, watching his reaction, which appears to be a sport of hers, as many come to watch that portrait of her. She is not wicked or lewd, but she is dangerously attractive and has apparently attracted the wrong kind of man, who comes importuning as professor Robinson is cozying up to her, which leads to terrible complications, and there the nightmare starts, which mercilessly rolls on getting constantly worse as murders and casualties start piling up...It's one of Fritz Lang's most accomplished nightmare thrillers, maybe his best, and it's perfectly real all the way. Joan Bennett is attractive enough to be convincing, at her first entrance she is in fact absolutely irresistible, while Raymond Masset adds to the towering nightmare by his creeping investigations. You couldn't get into worse trouble than Robinsin does here, and the conclusion is perfectly logical in all its tragedy, while there still remains something left to surprise him...

Kirpianuscus because it is more than a "film noire". using the ingredients who defines the genre. because it is an inspired and surprising reflection about sin. and, not the last, because it propose a different, impeccable Edward G. Robinson who did more than a great job. short, it is a film who must see. not for a special/unique motif but as a delightful story who reminds the old Oriental wise fairy tales. because, in a special way, it is a religious film. and not surprising from Fritz Lang , for who the exploration of evil was a lead theme.

Christopher Reid Edward G. Robinson is a quiet, friendly professor who sometimes lectures on murder. One night, his friends discuss the fact that they're too old to go on any "adventures" anymore. Lately he has been fascinated by a portrait of a lady in a street window. One night, he is admiring the painting again and then sees a real woman appear in the reflection next to it, like something out of a dream. But he turns and she's really standing there. Even though he knows he "shouldn't", they go out for a drink. The movie seems harmless enough, a lonely older man befriending a younger lady. And then something happens and they're in a tricky situation. He hesitates to call the police. Perhaps he should have.Based on the plot, you would guess the director was Hitchcock (but it's Fritz Lang who does an excellent job here). It's exactly his kind of movie. An innocent man gets mixed up in some nasty business. He just wants out but he's stuck and the pressure builds on him. He becomes overcome with guilt and worries so much that the police will find him out.In this movie, the professor meets a detective working on the case and hears the details of exactly what they've found out. Your heart falls into the pit of your stomach when you realise how much they've figured out and so quickly. He stumbles with his words a number of times, nearly giving himself up. He is not stupid, he is gripped by intense paranoia and uneasiness. There is awkward humour as he and the police joke about him having committed the act. In a couple of instances, he seems to be trying to get caught, he just wants it to be over. The threat is worse than the thing itself.It's a curious trick of the mind that the word "murder" comes up in other reviews. A murder has to be planned and that clearly wasn't the case here. Robinson feels guilty about trying to cover up an accident but then that guilt seems to turn it into a murder for a lot of people (including the character himself) and they start to see him as an evil criminal. He is innocent except for trying to cover up what happened and avoid going to court and explaining the truth.I greatly enjoyed this movie. It had many surprises and the tension was high all the way through. There is an instance where a woman tries to poison a man. It avoids clichés, the focus is on whether he suspects or not and we can't tell. The movie is not about the fates of the characters or what they deserve. It's not about murder or the police. It's about the way lies grow and come back to haunt you. The psychology of guilt, how it never fades and constantly eats away at you. The way the truth is usually inescapable. The harshness of the outside world and how difficult it is to outsmart people. How impossible it is to get away with a crime.The focus of the movie is Robinson's state of mind. He is a fly caught in a web waiting for the spider to slowly, inevitably eat him up. We feel his guilt, his dread, his relief and his hope as they cycle between each-other. We don't want him to get caught (although he should have called the police) but it seems that will be his only escape from the unbearable guilt and apprehension.

mark.waltz It is only by chance that assistant professor of criminology Edward G. Robinson encounters the beautiful Joan Bennett. He is admiring her portrait in the gallery window and it is certainly a surprise to him when he sees her reflection behind her. She innocently invites him over to her apartment to show him drawings by the same artist, and all of a sudden, he finds himself plummeting a pair of scissors into a man's back who interrupted them and presumed something else was going on. He only thought that he was trying to get the man to stop beating him when Bennett conveniently placed the scissors in his hand. Now, determined not to be involved in a murder wrap, Robinson and Bennett conspire to get rid of the body, thus (with his expertise) committing the perfect crime.But crime, no matter the circumstances, never goes undetected, and when the body is discovered, Robinson's pal (Raymond Massey) is involved in the case and asks Robinson to aide him in putting together the clues. The fact that certain aspects of the case Robinson innocently reveals and the fact that certain clues show up implicating Robinson doesn't make him a suspect, but his own guilt gets him back together to conspire with Bennett, especially when a shady blackmailer (Dan Duryea) gets involved.This is a tight little film noir, sometimes slow moving, but always intriguing, only marred by a trick ending. The first half of the film focuses on Robinson's efforts to keep himself from being exposed; the second half focuses on Bennett's dealings with the sinister Duryea. Bennett moved from light-hearted leading lady into film noir vixen with ease, proving that she was more than just a former blonde beauty who became brunette to capitalize on her Hedy Lamarr similar looks. Actually, I had always known that Bennett was a better actress than the types of roles she had been doing up to this point, and as film noir became a major part of American cinema, her status in Hollywood rose, proving that even in the age-defined movie capital, re-defining yourself can stretch your career and keep you going, something very rare, especially for women heading past their mid 30's.As for Edward G. Robinson, he had always mixed his tough guy gangsters with the milquetoast characters he played in such classics as "The Whole Town's Talking" and "Mr. Winkle Goes to War". Robinson proves once again that he was one of the most versatile actors in film and could handle both leads and supporting parts with equal vigor. Director Fritz Lang provides enough thrills here, and while the final denouncement is a bit inconclusive (even before the trick ending), there's a nice touch involving character actress Iris Adrian that will make you forgive the writers for fooling you and being slightly cheap in bringing the film to its conclusion.