Dean Stockwell is a young chemist who adores Annabel although she's happily married. She dominates his every thought and move. He even assumes a second identity and sets up a home in the countryside which he shares with icons that remind him of her -- dresses, photos, slippers, a nightie. Annabel herself, Susan Oliver, is aware of his obsession and tries to discourage him but it's no use. Her husband seeks out Stockwell in his country house and is murdered. Then Oliver finds his hiding place and is murdered. Then a young girl who works in Stockwell's office discovers his secret house and -- well, if things can go wrong, they usually do.
I don't know where Hitchcock's staff found such an array of talent or, at least, experience. This was adapted by Robert "Psycho" Block from a novel by the lesbian novelist Patricia Highsmith, who knows her way around secret identities ("Strangers on a Train," "The Talented Mister Ripley"). Stockwell and Oliver were both regulars on television and sometimes movies. It was directed by Paul Henreid, the heroic resistance fighter in "Casablanca."
Best performance award goes to Dean Stockwell, whose innocent smile turns into a demonic scowl as he strangles his victims. I almost always enjoy Dean Stockwell's performances. And he's handsome too, with semi-simian eyebrows -- masculine, yet sensitive. He looks a lot like me, as a matter of fact, only less handsome, suggestive of less vigor. He's my contemporary. I worked with him in a movie, "Blue Velvet," and was pleasantly surprised to find that he's aging gracefully too, just like me. And he was great as the cynical lawyer in "To Live And Die In L.A."
What's lacking? An ending with an ironic twist. It just ends complacently, with an unseemly display of self satisfaction. No novelty there. And Gary Cockrell, who plays Stockwell's room mate, has an accent or speech peculiarity that always gives me the creeps, a shiver looking for a spine to run up.
I don't know where Hitchcock's staff found such an array of talent or, at least, experience. This was adapted by Robert "Psycho" Block from a novel by the lesbian novelist Patricia Highsmith, who knows her way around secret identities ("Strangers on a Train," "The Talented Mister Ripley"). Stockwell and Oliver were both regulars on television and sometimes movies. It was directed by Paul Henreid, the heroic resistance fighter in "Casablanca."
Best performance award goes to Dean Stockwell, whose innocent smile turns into a demonic scowl as he strangles his victims. I almost always enjoy Dean Stockwell's performances. And he's handsome too, with semi-simian eyebrows -- masculine, yet sensitive. He looks a lot like me, as a matter of fact, only less handsome, suggestive of less vigor. He's my contemporary. I worked with him in a movie, "Blue Velvet," and was pleasantly surprised to find that he's aging gracefully too, just like me. And he was great as the cynical lawyer in "To Live And Die In L.A."
What's lacking? An ending with an ironic twist. It just ends complacently, with an unseemly display of self satisfaction. No novelty there. And Gary Cockrell, who plays Stockwell's room mate, has an accent or speech peculiarity that always gives me the creeps, a shiver looking for a spine to run up.