Very well executed

One of my all time favorites.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Doakes (Robert Benchley) is read 3 stories to help in his decision as to whether or not to believe in fate or dreams.In the first story, its "Mardi Gras" and everyone is wearing masks and costumes. Henrietta (Betty Field), is depressed as she is ugly and is about to drown herself when a stranger (Edgar Barrier) appears. He leads her to a mask shop and tells her to pick a mask and join the festivities on condition that she return at midnight. She goes out and meets with Michael (Robert Cummings) who she has loved from afar for a considerable time. Wearing her mask, she enjoys a few hours with him before returning to the mask shop at midnight. However, Michael has followed her......In the second story, a palmist (Thomas Mitchell) is predicting events with astonishing accuracy at a soirée at the house of Lady Pamela (May Witty). Marshall (Edward G Robinson) sees that the palmist is not being honest with him and goes to his house to insist that he tells him the truth about what he can see. He warns Marshall that he will kill someone. The rest of the tale is played out with Marshall struggling with his conscience as he picks victims to kill.....In the third story, a tightrope-walker (Charles Boyer) has a dream that during his act he falls from the wire while staring at a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) that he has never met. The dream prompts him to cancel the dangerous part of his act. On his way over to America he meets the woman on the boat and they fall in love. He asks her to attend his next show which she does. What happens....?...........It is well-acted and I liked the first 2 stories in particular. The only dodgy part to the 1st tale is in believing that Henrietta is ugly - she just isn't! In the 2nd tale, Edward G Robinson is very good as he reconciles himself to his fate and delivers some funny lines along the way. There is also good support from the Dean (C Aubrey Smith). The 3rd story develops at a slower pace than the previous two and has an ambiguous ending.....Its a film that you remember once it has finished.

The second of the three tales in this movie is, indeed, the strongest, and the most memorable.Another reviewer wrote that Noel Coward wrote the second of the three mini-movies within this one movie. Not so!!! It was based on an 1891 Oscar Wilde tale called "The Crime of Lord Arthur Saville." Although both gentlemen were British, both writers, both gay, Coward was born at about the time Wilde was sentenced to jail and later died, so the times in which they lived were very different! Plus, obviously, their styles of writing are very different.Just a little film history about the second tale:made into a U.S. theatrical movie in 2006 ("First Snow"); made into a Russian TV movie ("Prestuplenie lorda Artura") in 1991; made into a French TV movie in 1968 ("Le Crime de Lord Arthur Saville"); made into a British TV movie in 1960; made into a U.S. TV episode of "Suspicion" in 1958; enfolded into a theatrical movie in the U.S. in 1943 ("Flesh and Fantasy") made into a theatrical movie in France in 1921 or 1922.Enjoy!

This is a rather plodding series of three films dealing with dreams and pre-destination. The best is the central one, based on a Noel Coward story, in which Edward G. Robinson, Thomas Mitchell, Dame May Whitty and C. Aubrey Smith are all excellent. The first and last episodes are quite weak - and the linking sequences with Robert Benchley are just awful. But the film looks great, with interesting montages and great lighting. Overall though pretty disappointing.

Great fun for fans of those slightly off-kilter, dark 40's films which center around a strange and mysterious theme. In this case it's a man's obsession with dreams that are destined to come true. Features a trio of stories, and the best comes last. (plus an all-star cast!) A sister film to Three Strangers (1946).