Whirlpool

3/15/2014

A successful marriage is usually based on what a husband and wife don't know about each other. An interesting and divisive film noir thriller directed by Otto Preminger and written by Ben Hecht (under the blacklist pseudonym Lester Barstow) and Andrew Solt. Adapted from the novel "Methinks the Lady" written by Guy Endore, the film Stars Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, José Ferrer, and Charles Bickford. Arthur C. Miller is the cinematographer and David Raksin, under the watchful eye of Alfred Newman, provides the music. The plot sees Ann Sutton (Tierney), the wife of a successful psychoanalyst (Conte), arrested for shoplifting since she has some kleptomania issues. Just when it seems Ann is about to be thrust into a world of scandal, she is saved by smooth-talking hypnotist called David

12/22/2024

This might well be my favourite role for José Ferrer as he portrays the hypnotist charged with treating "Ann" (Gene Tierney). She's a bit of a kleptomaniac and both she and doctor husband "William" (Richard Conte) are determined to find out just what, if anything, is in her past and triggering this behaviour. It's not as if they are poor or that she needs the things she is stealing... Anyway, the clearly manipulative "Korvo" (Ferrer) manages to inveigle his way into the couple's life and offers to help. Next thing, she comes to and discovers a corpse on the adjacent sofa. Did she kill someone? She has no idea and policeman "Colton" (Charles Bickford) isn't convinced by the increasingly far-fetched solutions being offered by an husband determined, at all costs, to see his wife off the hook.