We are the victims in the BEST THRILLER/ SUSPENSE FILMS EVER.
May 25 '00 (Updated Feb 13 '08)
The Bottom Line These films will reveal a variety of masterpieces, a number of which may indicate the origins and shortcomings of recent by-the-numbers examples of the Thriller/Suspense genre.
The greatest technical artistry of the Movies is not blue screens, computer simulations or explosions, but Suspense. Without it no film is truly satisfying. I have selected a mostly off beat group of thrillers that the illustrate the fact.
A Suspense Thriller may involve the fate of the world or the safety of a child. The hero or heroine may be innocent or deeply flawed. Each of us is the victim in danger. It is the artistic task of the screenwriter, director, players, cinematographer, editor and film composer to make us feel ourselves in the victim's place. Such excellent possibilities as AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (Clair, 1945), THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (Frankenheimer, 1962) and THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER (Huston, 1963) had to be eliminated because they dealt primarily with a larger subject or had too many victims.
The criterion I use here is that the film must make us identify with the victim(s) from beginning to end. That barred masterpieces such as LAURA (Preminger, 1944) and PSYCHO (Hitchcock, 1960).
Although I have come up with some fresh titles, in the end a couple of classics can't be ignored, as we shall see:
10. THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS (Negulesco, 1944): This film, remarkable for its time, and fully watchable today, accomplishes the rather difficult task of making Peter Lorre a leading man, the hero in danger we root for. Lorre is a vacationing spy novelist who, after meeting Colonel Haki of the Turkish Secret Police in Istanbul, becomes obsessed with the life of a recently murdered master spy: Dimitrios Makropolis (Zackary Scott, debut). He follows the spy's trail of betrayal, swindle and murder through the capitals of Europe, and we gather Dimitrios and the men who paid him are really responsible for World War II. With each discovery, we feel the surprisingly charming Lorre is in greater danger. It has a superb supporting cast: Sidney Greenstreet, Faye Emerson, George Tobias, Victor Francen, Steven Geray, and Eduardo Cianelli. Hard to find in a complete print. Frank Gruber's screen play is based on Eric Ambler's A Coffin for Dimitrios. (Orson Welles played Colonel Haki in Ambler's JOURNEY INTO FEAR, 1942).
My full review --
http://www.epinions.com/content_77175557764
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9. THE PARALLAX VIEW (Pakula, 1974): Speculating on the assassinations of the 1960's, the film gives us Warren Beatty, his usual charismatic self, as an investigative reporter, who challenges the Official "lone nut" Explanation of the death of a Presidential Candidate. As he reveals the true nature of the crime, he unwittingly himself becomes part of the conspiracy. The title refers to the optical phenomenon that causes people to see alternate visions from different points of view. From beginning to end, the tension never relaxes. With Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn, Anthony Zerbe, and Kenneth Mars. Underrated and lesser known.
I recommend long gone bill chamber's Epinion, but don't ask me what all the "question marks" mean!
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-66F1-12393EBB-3941DAEE-prod1
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8. THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (Pollack, 1975): Robert Redford plays an Intelligence researcher, who is the sole survivor of a CIA Reduction in Force. Faye Dunaway is excellent as the woman who gives him shelter as he tries to figure out whose side he's on. Max von Sydow is the Technician, and Cliff Robertson is Redford's ambiguous Leader. The open-ended conclusion is one of the most creepy in American Film. The picture is one of several that show the atmosphere of distrust and dismay which existed in America during the 1970's.
Of the full reviews available, I recommend that of swoeste, who seldom posts --
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-3255-9D1AF65-39BED35D-prod1
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7. 10 RILLINGTON PLACE (Fleischer, 1971): John Cristie (Richard Attenborough), a gas victim in World War I, raped, murdered and buried a dozen women over 20 years at the London house of the title. Until his arrest, he was in danger but once. Tim Evans (young John Hurt), a slow witted worker, brought his wife (Judy Geeson) and baby to rent a second floor flat from Christie, who soon offered his services as an (illegal) abortionist. When Evans returned one day to find his wife dead, Christie told him he would be blamed, persuaded him to leave the baby with him while Evans went north to a sister's. Christie then murdered the baby, and when the crime was revealed, he testified against Evans, who was executed. Years later, when Christie was arrested for subsequent murders, the Home Secretary who signed Evans' death warrant sponsored a bill ending Capital Punishment in Britain. Low keyed, drably chilling, eerie, like watching a nightmare, a real life PSYCHO. Attenborough makes you wish he had spent his later years only acting. Hurt is unforgettable and heartbreaking as the befuddled Evans. Shot on location.
Only one full review is available, but it is one of the better ones by Bill Koller, the Grand Old Man of Epinions --
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-78F8-4B1F85EB-3A5A5E34-prod3
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6. THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME (Pichel, 1947): A surprising number of the best suspense films were little B-films, often found at the bottom of a double bill in the 1930's and 1940's. This film begins with Robert Young (in his only such role) testifying in his own defense at his murder trial. He is a married man, who, perhaps understandably, falls for Susan Hayward. He plots the murder of his wife (Rita Johnson), who is later found dead. Also involved with Jane Greer, he is sure as he testifies that no one will believe that he hasn't killed anyone. Bum that he is, we can all identify with him. A real sleeper.
My full review (added recently) --
http://www.epinions.com/content_340276186756
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5. *NIGHT AND THE CITY (Dassin, 1950): A nearly non-stop chase through the London night and Underworld, based on the novel by Gerald Kersh. Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) is an American chiseler, who makes his living as a shill for a Soho nightclub owned by Francis L. Sullivan. When he befriends elderly Stanislav Zymbisko (then true Undefeated Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion of the World), he sees a chance to make his pile by sponsoring a match with the local champ (Mike Mazurki). He procures expenses from a young hostess (Gene Tierney) and the Club Owner's Wife (Googie Withers). He fails to calculate that old Zymbisko has a mobster son (Herbert Lom) who loves him. They are soon all after Harry Fabian. Once again, although we may not like Harry, we can empathize in his pathetic schemes. Remade with Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange in 1992 (Winkler).
My full review --
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-2681-12306880-3884EE42-prod1
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4. I WAKE UP SCREAMING (Humberstone, 1941): Victor Mature is in love with glamorous singer Carole Landis, whom he is promoting. When she is murdered, he is stalked by an indefatigable police detective (Laird Cregar). Only the dead woman's sister (Betty Grable) believes him. The film is a combination of chase with cat and mouse. Another B-sleeper, a glitzy New York night time thriller, it was an important film in advancing the careers of all the principals. (Also known as HOTSPOT; remade as VICKI (Horner, 1951).
Stephen Murray has recently posted an excellent full review --
http://www.epinions.com/content_246340292228
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3. THE LODGER (Brahm, 1944): Made four times (significantly by Alfred Hichcock in 1926), based on Marie Belloc Lowndes' novel, THE LODGER opens to view a dark reverie on the identity of Jack the Ripper, the never caught slasher of half a dozen prostitutes in Whitechapel, London, during 1887-88. In this, the richest version, immensely talented, tragic Laird Cregar has one of his two starring roles as Mr Sleuth. (He died the same year trying to diet down to leading man weight.) When he takes a room in the East End boarding house of Cedric Hardwick and Sara Allgood, he is thunderstruck by their beautiful niece (Merle Oberon). And then, he learns she is . . . a Showgirl! The tension, mood and atmosphere are excellent. (Interestingly, years later, John Brahm finished out his career directing episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.)
Here is an excellent chatty full review of John Brahm's film by isinga, even though he's had to post under Alfred Hitchcock's chillier early version --
http://www.epinions.com/content_7120588420
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2. SHADOW OF A DOUBT (Hitchcock, 1943): This is the best of Hitchcock's early American films. Joseph Cotton is "The Merry Widow Murderer," who lives on the fortunes of the rich women he murders. He escapes to hide out at the home of his sister in bucolic Santa Rosa, California. He meets his niece (Theresa Wright), who has always worshipped him from her mother's descriptions. How the niece comes to realize who he is, and how the murderer comes to know that she knows, makes for one of the great Suspense Films. (Thornton Wilder had a hand in the screenplay; it was Hitchcock's favorite film.)
You might well read almost any of the first six or so full reviews listed for this "Our Town" blighted by a shadow of evil, but I picked one of the lesser known --
http://www.epinions.com/content_224176868996
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1. NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Laughton, 1955): James Agee's most successful screenplay, based on Davis Grubb's most successful novel (his first), directed by Charles Laughton (his one directorial credit), this dark, mystical chase film is unique in Hollywood History. After a West Virginian bank robber hides his loot in his little girl's doll, he is imprisoned with a psychopathic lay preacher (Robert Mitchum), who finds out and comes looking for the money. He chases the little girl and her slightly older brother through a mysterious, magical Depression landscape along the Ohio River. Everything from the expressionistic photography of Stanley Cortez (THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, 1942), the editing, the wondrous capping performance of Lillian Gish as a Good Samaritan, to the mythic tale itself, has seldom been equaled. Mitchum, Gish, Shelley Winters, and Jimmie Gleason give the best performances of their distinguished careers.
Of a number of full reviews I might recommend for this splendid, difficult, religious fable, I have picked one by thewasp because he must work through his own doubts about the picture's theme:
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-701-27C66D54-3990C385-prod5
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Lock your doors, and fire up your DVD, or alas, in a couple of cases her, the old VCR!
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