Movie Review: The Long Night (1947)

Genre: Crime Drama  

Director: Anatole Litvak  

Starring: Henry Fonda, Barbara Del Geddes, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak, Elisha Cook, Jr.  

Running Time: 101 minutes  

Synopsis: A man is shot dead on the top landing of an apartment building. The suspect Joe Adams (Henry Fonda) barricades himself inside his apartment, resisting police attempts to flush him out as a crowd gathers on the street. Flashbacks reveal that factory worker Joe met and fell in love with greenhouse employee Jo Ann (Barbara Bel Geddes), but was crushed to discover that she is already in another complex relationship with smarmy magician Maximilian (Vincent Price). Joe seeks emotional refuge with the brassy Charlene (Ann Dvorak), but cannot shake his feelings towards Jo Ann.

What Works Well: A remake of Marcel Carné's Le Jour Se Lève (1939), this is a story about the descent from optimism to cynicism. A well-meaning and initially cheerful steel mill factory worker, Joe represents every man victimized by layers of lies and overlooked by women of similar class seeking upward mobility with slimy exploitive sophisticates. And when confronted by authority, Joe does not even expect due process. His tiny apartment is riddled with police bullets before he is even charged, and Joe's detached reaction confirms his lack of surprise. Henry Fonda brings thoughtful rage into the showdown with bleakness. 

 

What Does Not Work As Well: While Barbara Bel Geddes is fine in her screen debut, the script saddles Jo Ann with inconsistent emotions, including a frantic and shouty climactic outburst that misses the mark. Maximilian's character is cartoonish rather than real, his goading unbecoming of a celebrity who already has the girl. Finally, the light piercing the darkness is supposed to be solidarity with Joe from the crowd gathered in the street, but this element is weak due to underinvestment in neighbourhood characters.

Key Quote:

Maximilian (to Joe): You know, I always find it rather amusing, these conceptions you simple men have concerning women. But the lovely creatures, they're so much more complicated, thank heaven.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Dangerous Mission (1954)

A stiff crime drama, Dangerous Mission features a decent cast and scenic locations but also a stolid script and inane action.

After witnessing a gangland hit Louise Graham (Piper Laurie) flees to Montana's Glacier National Park and a job as a hotel gift shop clerk. The bad guys uncover her new location and dispatch a hit-man. Ex-Marine Matt Hallett (Victor Mature) arrives at the park and checks into the hotel, where his handgun attracts the attention of Chief Ranger Joe Parker (William Bendix). 

Matt locates Louise but finds tourist Paul Adams (Vincent Price) already trying to win her attention. To mingle with the locals Matt befriends Louise's colleague Mary (Betta St. John), whose father Katoonai (Steve Darrell) is a fugitive wanted for murder. Louise has to sort out friend from foe and her life is soon in danger.

An RKO production filmed in Technicolor and 3D, Dangerous Mission is a mismatch of technology, locations, tone and budget. Producer Irwin Allen cuts his teeth on some non-sequitur disaster scenes, somehow throwing in a rock avalanche, a crackling electric cable, a forest fire and a glacier hazard course into what started as a Hitchcockian-noir combo. The natural catastrophes don't add relevance to the plot but allow director Louis King to burn a few of the already sparse 75 minutes of running time. 

The core plot is an unconvincing hodgepodge of woman-in-danger, a bland romantic triangle, attempted villainy, and a stupifyingly extraneous indigenous-fugitive-on-the-run sub-plot. The script by Charles Bennett, W. R. Burnett and Horace McCoy works overtime to trip itself up, and runs out of tricks as soon as the predictable switch between the presumed assassin and protector characters plays out with knowing inelegance.

The principal cast members are all better than this material, but are drawn down to the level of arthritic dialogue, plastic acting and ridiculous character decisions. And so after various tepid encounters a cop drags his star witness (complete in heels and a dressy outfit) into a dangerous pursuit across rugged terrain and exposes her to gunfire and deadly ice crevices. And of course they kiss triumphantly despite an accumulation of dead bodies strewn across the landscape.

The Glacier National Park scenery is appealing and King does a reasonable job combining on-location with studio shots, but Dangerous Mission remains dangerously bad.



All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Leave Her To Heaven (1945)

A colourful drama with noir shadings, Leave Her To Heaven explores a seemingly perfect marriage undermined by ruinous jealousy.

Author Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) meets beautiful rich socialite Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) on a train. She claims he closely resembles her recently deceased father, and break off her engagement with lawyer Russell Quinton (Vincent Price) to marry Richard.

Richard is devoted to the the wellbeing of his brother Danny (Darryl Hickman) who is slowly recovering from leg injuries. But Ellen is exceptionally possessive and starts to resent Danny's intrusion on her marriage. She is also jealous of her adopted sister Ruth (Jeanne Crain) who develops a deep friendship and perhaps a crush on Richard. As the newly married couple vacation with Danny at an idyllic lake, Ellen's emotional avarice takes a dark turn.

Sometimes designated the first film noir in colour, Leave Her To Heaven is more of an overdone mishmash. While Ellen Berent is certainly a memorable femme fatale, director John M. Stahl is less concerned with noir elements and more interested in showcasing his Technicolor crayons with sparkling scenes of lakefront living. The film more often resembles an overheated melodrama, Ellen admitting early to an excessive demand for devotion and an inability to share attention, creating a sturdy but predictable foundation for misdeeds to come.

The film adapts the novel by Ben Ames Williams with hints of underdeveloped storylines hampered by the cinematic constraints of the era. Ellen's relationship with her deceased father is described in a few different vague terms but never confronted for what it may have been. Less excusable is the rather tepid depiction of the bond between Richard and Ruth, a source of much of Ellen's wrath but otherwise poorly defined. And finally Ellen as a potential victim of a mental disorder is never posited as a narrative avenue. Her venom towards others (and herself) is portrayed as simple evil, denying the film texture.

The final act suddenly transforms into amateur hour at the courthouse. In a ridiculous display of theatrics, Vincent Price takes centre stage as lead prosecutor and the Jo Swerling script demonstrates a childish disdain for basic court proceedings.

The cast members are surprisingly stiff, with only Gene Tierney glowing within the colourful aesthetic. Cornel Wilde is mechanical and Jeanne Crain underutilized.

Instead of a deft touch, sinister nuance, and shades of grey, Leave Her To Heaven opts for brash and bold.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Three Musketeers (1948)

A swashbuckling adventure, The Three Musketeers is reasonably entertaining but undeniably frazzled.

It's the 1600s in France and young d'Artagnan (Gene Kelly) leaves the countryside and heads to Paris seeking to join the elite Musketeers, who form the King's guard. He proves his swordsmanship in a battle alongside Athos (Van Heflin), Porthos (Gig Young) and Aramis (Robert Coote) and joins them as they defend the King (Frank Morgan) from evil plots. The main threat is posed by the nefarious Prime Minister Richelieu (Vincent Price), who wants to trigger a war with England and regularly conspires with Milady, Countess de Winter (Lana Turner).

d'Artagnan meets and falls in love with Constance (June Allyson), one of the maidens of Queen Anne (Angela Lansbury). The Musketeers set off on a mission to England to retrieve jewels from the Duke of Buckingham (John Sutton), but that is just the start of many adventures to try and thwart the persistent Richelieu.

A disorganized mess of a film, The Three Musketeers just about scrapes through. The energy level is admirably high and athletic swordplay setpieces erupt at regular intervals. Yet a lack of tonal cohesion, weird casting choices, characters rotating in and out of the movie with no explanation, plot points that border on incomprehensible, and plenty of seemingly important action occurring off-screen all combine to create a disconcerting experience.

Most of the trouble originates within a lazy script intent on thoughtlessly cramming too much of Alexandre Dumas' episodic stories into a two hour movie. With no appreciation for the need to focus to achieve depth or cohesion, the film thrashes around in shallow waters gasping from one side quest to the next, barely explaining why everyone is running around, or even who everyone is or why they matter.

Director George Sidney cobbles together enough swashbuckling sword fights to paper over most of the cracks, with Gene Kelly's athleticism put to great use. The lavish sets, locations and costumes often look gorgeous in technicolor, and a certain level of joie de vivre helps hustle the film along.

Gene Kelly as d'Artagnan and Van Heflin as Athos seem to be acting in two different movies. Kelly is all smiles as he peddles a light hearted attitude and half-threatens to break out into a song-and-dance routine at every opportunity. Heflin is dour, reflective and dramatic as he pauses often to drone on about his lost love.

Porthos and Aramis barely register as the other two musketeers, but the ladies fare worst of all. Lana Turner is top billed but her role is almost incidental, June Allyson as Constance is both mis-cast and underwritten, and Angela Lansbury's Queen Anne is detached from most of the various plots.

The Three Musketeers gallops across the landscape with impressive bravado, but forgets to bring along any sense of structured significance.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: A Royal Scandal (1945)

A Russian monarchy romance and politics comedy, A Royal Scandal provides a showcase for Tallulah Bankhead but is otherwise limited in scope and impact.

In the court of Queen Catherine of Russia (Bankhead), Chancellor Nicolai Ilyitch (Charles Coburn) has the job of knowing everything about everyone to protect his Czarina. Countess Anna Jaschikoff (Anne Baxter) is Catherine's confidant and chief fashion consultant. With French Ambassador Marquis de Fleury (Vincent Price) waiting for an audience, a breathless Lieutenant Alexei Chernoff (William Eythe), who is also Anna's lover, arrives from the far reaches of the Empire to warn Catherine of a plot against her life.

Although it turns out that the Chancellor had that plot well in control, Catherine immediately takes a liking to the dashing Alexei and quickly installs him as her new toyboy and promotes him to lead her palace guard. He is enchanted, forgets all about Anna, and fully falls for the pretense that he is the Queen's closest advisor. With Anna unable to hold her tongue, Alexei has to decide where his loyalties lie when he uncovers a new plot, this time for a palace coup.

A play adaptation, with the film produced by Ernst Lubitsch but directed by Otto Preminger after Lubitsch fell ill, A Royal Scandal remains severely stage bound and offers narrow appeal. The fictional romance and scheming shenanigans within the Russian court may have had some basis in reality, but the film makes it difficult to care. Large chunks of the 94 minutes are spent on scenes of discourse between Catherine and Alexei, the action static, the movie trapped within a couple of sets, the pacing slow.

On the positive side some of the dialogue is snappy, Catherine in particular provided with the edgiest lines while her Chancellor Nicolai oozes the manipulative oil that keeps his Queen's machinery in control. And in terms of performances, Tallulah Bankhead is a joy to watch as she dances in the space between lonely ruler looking for her latest virile lover and killer instincts to do whatever it takes to maintain an iron grip on the throne. Even in black and white Catherine's stunning dresses and jewellery add much needed visual appeal. Charles Coburn is the other standout performer, but he disappears from the film for long stretches.

As for the story, there is some humour to be found in Alexei's rapid series of promotions as Catherine's lust-o-meter kicks in, but otherwise much of the action happens off-screen, with the evildoers poorly defined and confined to tertiary characters with interchangeably difficult names. A Royal Scandal is a generally mundane affair, lacking in cinematic energy, with the romance, laughs and palace intrigue all confined to tight quarters.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Song Of Bernadette (1943)

A religious drama based on reported events, The Song Of Bernadette is an engaging story of belief balanced by a reasonable amount of cynicism.

It's the late 1850s in the small town of Lourdes in France. Bernadette Soubirous (Jennifer Jones) is 14 years old and lives in a dank single-room basement dwelling with her mostly unemployed father Francois (Roman Bohnen), mother Louise (Anne Revere) and siblings. The family is poor and Francois struggles to put food on the table. Frequently sick and admittedly a bit dim, Bernadette struggles to learn her catechism at the Catholic school and is humiliated by her teacher Sister Vauzous (Gladys Cooper).

One day while out collecting firewood the image of a beautiful Lady (an uncredited Linda Darnell) appears to Bernadette in a rock niche near the town's garbage dump. No one else sees the Lady, but Bernadette insists that she was there, and furthermore, that the Lady promised to reappear on many successive days. Bernadette's claims are met with skepticism by her parents as well as Mayor Lacade (Aubrey Mather), Imperial Prosecutor Vital Dutour (Vincent Price), and police chief Jacomet (Charles Dingle). Doctor Dozous (Lee J. Cobb) is brought in to examine her, while local Catholic Abbott Dominique Peyramale (Charles Bickford) adopts a hands-off, wait-and-see attitude.

The local population starts to accompany Bernadette to the site, and news spreads of the visions. When a water stream with apparent healing properties emerges near the location of the Lady's appearances, the crowds multiply and the story attracts national attention.

Directed by Henry King, The Song Of Bernadette is an adaptation of the best-selling book by Franz Werfel. The story of the Virgin Mary appearing repeatedly to a naive girl is beyond debate for devout Catholics, but probably represents nothing more than overactive hallucinations combined with a strong willingness to believe among the uneducated.

Those whose lives are made better worshipping rocks and supposed spectral images visible to only one person, augmented by magically healing water and the sweet words of a fairly dumb 14 year old, will need no convincing that all this is true. But screenwriter George Seaton deserves a lot of credit for maintaining, sometimes forcefully, a sarcastic and opportunistic alternative narrative through the words and actions of Mayor Lacade, Imperial Prosecutor Dutour and police chief Jacomet.

This trio and others refuse to believe anything other than Bernadette is either sick or manipulative, and director King gives them plenty of time and scenes to make their point. Even Sister Vauzous remains among the sceptics for long stretches, while Abbott Peyramale rides the fence and remains troubled by some aspects of Bernadette's story. Only towards the end of the film does King tilt the balance towards reverence.

The running length of 156 minutes is quite hefty, but this is a story spanning many years and rich in characters and events, and King rarely lingers in one place for too long. The sets are limited but intricate. The garbage dump, the cramped Soubirous household, a bustling town environment and the more ostentatious government offices capture the rich mosaic of a small but busy society. Alfred Newman replaced Igor Stravinsky and provides an evocative but sometimes overbearing orchestral score that plays throughout.

Helped by producer David O. Selznick, Jennifer Jones (previously known as Phyllis Isley) relaunched her career and landed the Best Actress Academy Award for her turn as Bernadette. For most of the film Jones delivers a monotonal performance, speaking in an irritatingly fake girlish tone. The final scenes, set some 20 years after the visions, offer her an opportunity to stretch and she becomes more credible. The supporting cast is deep in talent, with Charles Bickford, Vincent Price, Anne Revere, and late on, Gladys Cooper sharing the load and all leaving a positive impression.

The Song Of Bernadette is a graceful film, and handles spiritual territory with sensitivity and a nod towards alternative viewpoints. Bernadette may have been a saint chosen to inspire religious fervour, or a dimwitted girl caught in a web created by her own imagination. Either way, the story of the passion she ignited is worth watching.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

The Movies Of Vincent Price

All movies starring Vincent Price and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex (1939)

The Song Of Bernadette (1943)

Laura (1944)

A Royal Scandal (1945)

Leave Her To Heaven (1945)

The Long Night (1947)

The Three Musketeers (1948)

Dangerous Mission (1954)

The Ten Commandments (1956)

Serenade (1956)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Edward Scissorhands (1990)

A dark fantasy drama with a mean streak of humour, Edward Scissorhands is a fiercely original treatment of the comfortably familiar fitting-in theme.

The film is set in a suburban subdivision located at the base of a mountain, with a Gothic mansion on top looming over the quaint houses. On a snowy night, an old lady tucks her granddaughter in and recounts a story that happened years ago, triggering a film-long flashback. Avon lady Peg (Dianne Wiest), a subdivision resident, is having a bad day, and with nothing to lose decides to head up to the mansion to try and make a sale. Inside she finds the place empty except for a frightened young man called Edward (Johnny Depp), with large scissors for hands. Edward was created by The Inventor (Vincent Price), who died before he could complete Edward and provide him with proper hands. Peg feels sorry for Edward and takes him home. Peg's husband Bill (Alan Arkin) and son Kevin are initially stunned but accept Edward as a new member of the family.

Edward is scared and his massive scissor hands cause plenty of accidents, but with Peg's help he slowly starts to adapt to suburban life. The gossipy neighbours, including the over-sexed Joyce (Kathy Baker), are fascinated, and Edward becomes a local celebrity when he demonstrates artistic talent for sculptural hedges, trimming the fur of pet dogs, and providing the women with stylish hair cuts. When Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder) returns from a camping trip, she is initially horrified to find Edward in her room, but gradually Kim and Edward develop feelings for each other, which is bad news for Kim's aggressive boyfriend Jim (Anthony Michael Hall).

Directed and co-produced by Tim Burton and written by Caroline Thompson, Edward Scissorhands is a dark masterpiece. With brisk pacing Burton unleashes his irresistible fantasy on a comically idealized suburban world stuck in an undefined hybrid of the 1950s and 1970s, with every house sporting a bright monochrome paint job. The mansion on the hill, of course, stands in stark contrast, the brooding outsider bathed in black, dark blues and darker greys.

Peg and her neighbours go about their business of pursuing the American dream, the women left at home during the day to gossip and cause mischief while the men drive to work in the morning and come back in the evening with army-like discipline. Edward is dropped into this immaculately manicured world, and his dream is just to be part of the human family. Not too tall and definitely not superficially handsome, Edward is pasty but enigmatic. Remarkably, he is generally accepted as is, and only the complications caused by affairs of the heart cause him grief.

The central themes of belonging, finding a home, and stumbling upon love run through the film. Once Kim makes her appearance the candle of romance flickers to life, but the darkness also seeps in, with Edward causing unintended grief by wanting to love and be loved. The film suggests that the ability to care and love is fundamentally human, and a non-human invention such as Edward can live alongside humans but will struggle to share in the true fulfillment brought upon by mutual passion.

Burton makes use of plenty of clever point-of-view shots, particularly from Edward's perspective, to highlight the experience of the newcomer with an incomplete skill set. Whether it's Peg being excessively nice with her make-up kit or Edward trying to capture any vegetable to eat at dinner, Burton frequently invites the viewer to live in Edward's shoes, dramatically enhancing the film's impact even in the smallest moments daily life.

Johnny Depp launched his career with his portrayal of Edward. It's an unforgettable performance centred on almost silent pathos. Depp's understated expressions convey sadness, fear, panic, bewilderment, anger and sometimes happiness, and later on he captures what it means to find wistful infatuation and a potential first romance. Wiest represents middle America's capacity to display a big and welcoming heart, while Ryder does well in a quick transition from callous to caring. Kathy Baker plays neighbour Joyce for broad laughs, as intended.

Edward Scissorhands delivers on all its multi-genre promises, mixing drama, humour, fantasy and romance with an emotionally satisfying cutting edge.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Serenade (1956)

A comeback showcase for tenor Mario Lanza, Serenade is a galumphing story of music melding into complicated romances, enlivened by many interludes of extraordinary operatic singing.

In California, Damon Vincenti (Lanza) is a humble field worker with a remarkable talent for singing. Through family connections he gets an opportunity to perform at Lardelli's, a San Francisco restaurant, where he is quickly spotted by the well-connected Charles Winthrop (Vincent Price) and rich society girl and arts patron Kendall Hale (Joan Fontaine). Winthrop introduces Damon to legendary vocal coach Maestro Marcatello (Joseph Calleia), who hones Damon's talent and sets him on the course to stardom. Meanwhile, Damon is very much falling in love with Kendall and uses her as his inspiration, but she remains aloof.

On Damon's grand debut with the New York Opera, all goes wrong, and his career appears to be finished before it starts. Damon retreats to Mexico in a depressed state, where he meets Juana Montes (Sara Montiel), the feisty daughter of a deceased bullfighter. She revives his spirits, but Damon has unfinished business back in the United States, including a reputation to repair and the relationship with Kendall to resolve.

Directed by Anthony Mann as an adaptation of a steamy James M. Cain novel (but excluding most of the sexual escapades that would have been too complicated for a 1950s film audience), Serenade amplifies the melodrama and layers on emotional catastrophes. The film about an opera singer takes on the grand airs of an on-screen opera, with themes of infatuation, betrayal, depression, confrontation and redemption all played at the highest possible volume and in the most vivid colours. The overflowing broth is both the film's charm and limitation. It's impossible to take any of it too seriously, and it's equally easy to surrender to its husky spell.

While the passion and fervour are consistently engrossing, Mann is unable to achieve an even tone, and the film's resonance fluctuates wildly. The singing interludes are packed into bunches, and there are long stretches devoid of Lanza doing what Lanza does best. The two halves of the film almost play out as two separate stories. The first US-based portion is all about the rural boy doing good, while the second Mexico-set segment is an arduous journey of recovery. The final 15 minutes, with the two women in Damon's life finally confronting each other, oscillate recklessly and feature rampant cattiness and pointy swordplay before collapsing into an unsatisfactory heap.

Lanza is much better as a singer than an actor, and he unsuccessfully struggles to convince that he can carry off dramatic scenes. His line delivery is stiff and hesitant, his lack of comfort when not singing painfully apparent. Joan Fontaine is adequate, but she is not a natural self-centered vamp. Fontaine does not disgrace herself as Kendall Hale, but neither is she fully convincing. She also disappears for a long stretch once Damian relocates to Mexico. Sara Montiel and Vincent Price emerge with the best performances. Montiel gives Juana a genuine passion for life, while Price gets the snappiest lines and best attitude as the worldly Charles Winthrop.

Serenade is never dull; it's just smothered with the thick sauce of operatic excess.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Laura (1944)

A classic film noir, Laura is a murder whodunnit filled with style, suspects, infatuation, and characters ready to deeply and truly betray each other.

Marketing executive Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) has been shot dead in her swanky New York City apartment. Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is called in to investigate, and quickly turns his attention to flamboyant newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb). Although much older than her, Waldo was Laura's protective mentor, vetting her lovers and showering her with gifts. In flashback Waldo introduces Mark to Laura's story, from which other murder suspects emerge.

Womanizing playboy Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price) was Laura's fiancé, and indeed she had just agreed to marry him, despite Waldo's dire warnings, before she was killed. Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson) was Laura's icy aunt, and she was carrying on her own relationship with Shelby. And Bessie Clary (Dorothy Adams) was Laura's loyal house servant. Now fully immersed in Laura's world, Mark finds himself falling in love with the image of the murder victim, as her haunting portrait looms large over him at her apartment.

Directed by Otto Preminger, Laura is a succulent mystery, a small film that comes together in just the right proportions to form a sparkling package. This is an investigation driven by complex emotions, entangled by love, lust and greed, a minefield of relationships that quickly entraps the detective.

About halfway through, Laura introduces the major plot twist, knocking the mystery on its head and steering the investigation in a new direction, with new evidence and a shocking new suspect suddenly entering the fray. The screenplay, by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Betty Reinhardt (adapting the Vera Caspary novel) builds up to that moment, introducing the characters in Laura's world, and then does not miss a beat as all previous assumptions are reset and Mark has to grapple with new realities.

At Laura's core are themes of agonizing, unreciprocated infatuation. Waldo is clearly obsessed and deeply possessive about Laura. She sees him as just a kind uncle figure. He wants a lot more, but is unlikely to ever get it. Laura's aunt Ann recognizes in the sleazy Shelby her ideal partner and perhaps her one last hope for a man of her own. Shelby perceives Ann as an easy victim to string along as a source of money, and has his eyes set on the younger and more glamorous Laura.

Mark is sucked into this world and gradually Laura starts to consume him. His investigation becomes about more than just finding a murderer; it is personal, as he succumbs to Laura's mysterious beauty while she dominates him from the high vantage point of her portrait. And Laura's character is a lingering enigma. A woman confident enough to hang a large self-portrait in her own apartment, and yet harbouring fundamental human weaknesses: she is incapable of pushing back against Waldo's domination, and unable to resist the dangerous charms of Shelby.

The mostly B+ cast members deliver functional performances, with Gene Tierney mesmeric in her most famous role. Laura benefits from the absence of star names, allowing Preminger to focus on the story and shift attention among the characters as required to follow the knotted threads of suspicion and doubt. And at the centre of the puzzle is Laura herself, a victim who nevertheless casts a spell with a cryptic sense of presence.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.