John "Kit" McKittrick (John Garfield) arrives to investigate the death of his best friend Louie Lepetino. He distrusts the police who claim the death to be a suicide. He falls for Toni Donne (Maureen O'Hara). During the Spanish Civil War, he was taken prisoner and interrogated by a shadowy Nazi with a limp.
The movie has the feel of a nightmare. The expected whodunnit turns out to be more convoluted. Characters are constantly popping up. All along, there is a background of psychological torture. Garfield gives a great sense of a man under stress. It is somewhat hard to keep track of the people or the plot. I would be amendable if this becomes more Kafkaesque and more surreal. It needs to not make sense in more specific ways. This seems to be the work of a filmmaker unable to dive head first into unrealism.
The movie has the feel of a nightmare. The expected whodunnit turns out to be more convoluted. Characters are constantly popping up. All along, there is a background of psychological torture. Garfield gives a great sense of a man under stress. It is somewhat hard to keep track of the people or the plot. I would be amendable if this becomes more Kafkaesque and more surreal. It needs to not make sense in more specific ways. This seems to be the work of a filmmaker unable to dive head first into unrealism.