Very disappointing...

Touches You

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is an unusual and surreal little film, starting from the beginning. The prologue says that the three furies go about the world enticing people to do evil. Then a shadowed figure of a man shoots a woman in cold blood and out of the droplets of the blood come the three furies, looking and laughing like female demons racing into the night.Then we are in criminal attorney Lee Gentry's (Claude Rains) office. He is mentioning to his legal secretary how he wants to get rid of his current girlfriend, Carmen Brown, a cabaret dancer (Margo), but that instead of that he wound up in a flurry of kisses and vows with her, once again. He wants to dump her for the ice queen, Katy, who does not seem nearly as enthused about him as he is about her. Basically Gentry delivers a monologue about how he just can't resist figuring out what makes the women in his life tick, getting them head over heels in love with him, and then their adoration repels him and causes him to reject them. You get the feeling that maybe Gentry has a 50ish legal secretary exactly because he does not want his bad personal romantic habits to follow him into the office.In the next scenes Gentry gets everybody on his bad side, the prosecutor, the police, he even sets up a situation to make it look like he feels Carmen has been unfaithful and that is why he is leaving her, making her feel their breakup is her own fault. Up to now everything Gentry has done is because he thinks he is better than everybody else, smarter, that he can take what he wants and not care for other people's feelings. And then he performs one unselfish act and it turns into what could be construed as murder. The police and prosecutors are certainly not going to go easy on him or believe him after he has made fools of them in court on a regular basis. So he sets out to make it look like he could not have committed the murder. His legal mind constructs an intricate alibi, even setting up an alternate fall guy for the murder.How does this all pan out? Watch and find out. The ending is like a cross between something Robert Serling and Alfred Hitchcock would come up with. Highly recommended. This practically one man show will hold your interest throughout partly due to Ben Hecht's talented writing and direction, and partly due to Rains' outstanding performance.

With a poll coming up on IMDbs Classic Film board for the best titles of 1934,I started searching round a DVD sellers site,and I was pleased to spot a great sounding Film Noir,starring The Invisible Man himself: Claude Rains,which led to me getting ready to witness a passionate crime take place.The plot:Feeling confident that he has slithered his client away from a guilty verdict,a hot-shot lawyer called Lee Gentry leaves the court before the jury has even had the slightest chance to consider its verdict.Ignoring comments from the press over him getting criminals off the hook,Gentry gives all of his attention to cabaret singer Carmen Brown.Despite Brown expressing her love for him,Gentry is desperate to get rid of her,so that he can replace her with his latest piece of arm candy: Katy Costello,this leads to Gentry putting fake dating ads in the paper as Brown,in the hope she will get back with her ex Eddie WhiteWanting Brown to reveal the suspected affair,Gentry starts attempting to give signals to White that the relationship is back on,with planted evidence.Taking his fake evidence to Brown,Gentry is horrified when Brown is still not willing to say that she is having an affair.Getting into a fight with Brown,Gentry ends up accidentally shooting her.Fearing that he could face the chair for murder,Gentry begins making plans on how he can use his slippery skills to escape from his own verdict.View on the film:For what was his 4th film role, Claude Rains gives a marvellous performance as Lee Gentry,with Rains making Gentry look like he is completely covered in grease that slides down Gentry's slick suits,which is highlighted by Rains painting Gentry as a ruthless Film Noir character,whose only emotion is getting one over all the "bugs" below him.Dipping into his Invisible Man past,Rains pulls the "id/ego" out of Gentry,and shows the "invisible" ego of Gentry to be a smooth talker,whose self-centred narrow vision stops Gentry from seeing the direction that the "bugs" are taking.Making her debut,16 year old Margo gives a tremendous performance as femme fatale Carmen Brown,thanks to Margo giving Carmen a smoking hot glamour style,with cracks which hint at a darker past hidden away.Making their directing debut away from the studio system,writers/directors (with the uncredited,extremely generous help of Lee Garmes) Ben Hecht and Lee Garmes (who cameo in the title…with their wives!) unleash a charcoal Film Noir.Opening with a breath- taking opening effects scene designed by Slavko Vorkapich,Hecht & Garmes paint a world completely covered in grime. The directors superbly use overlaying images,to show Gentry's ego/ID overriding even the most basic morals,as tightly-held close ups of Gentry showing pushing away any doubts,with the knowledge that he will always win.Opening with Gentry saying that he views the public as "bugs" the excellent screenplay by Hecht and Garmes pulls open every inch of darkness within the film.Keeping away from giving Gentry any likable features,the writers show every inch of Gentry to be dripping with a rich,decaying nihilism,that soaks up any possible light in its surroundings,with the sole goal of dragging even the smallest light (such as Carmen Brown) into a vicious Film Noir,as Gentry begins to find a passion for crime.

This moody little independent film – written, produced and directed by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (the men behind the popular play "The Front Page," the source for 'His Girl Friday (1940)') – was also the third major role for Claude Raines, fresh from his stunning debut in 'The Invisible Man (1933).' Though largely a down-to-earth, if slightly cerebral, crime drama, 'Crime Without Passion' opens with a jaw dropping prologue, in which frightening, barely-clothed nymphs rise from the ground and cackle ecstatically at the sin running rampart through the city: murder, violence, adultery.In the main story, Lee Gentry (Raines) is a high-profile lawyer who makes his living from acquitting guilty men, even if that means lying and fabricating evidence. Gentry has a new woman in his life (Whitney Bourne), but can't rid himself of the old one (Margo Albert, or just plain Margo). When Gentry commits the ultimate crime, his lucid legal mind, speaking through a ghostly mental apparition, narrates him through the process of destroying evidence and establishing an alibi. But can he get away with it?Though very tense for the most part, I did feel a little let down by the ending. We learn, too late for our increasingly paranoid protagonist, that Carmen Brown was not actually dead, and had merely fainted in response to Gentry's gunshot. This seems an unlikely misdiagnosis from the cool, methodical lawyer; perhaps such a character blunder could only arise in a period when cinematic murders were necessarily bloodless, as chartered by the Production Code. Or maybe this is Hecht and MacArthur suggesting that, despite Gentry's belief that he is always in control, his state of mind at that moment was no less garbled than your average two-bit criminal.

One of the first indie features. Made by writers Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (Of "The Front Page""Twentieth Century" fame at the Paramount Astoria Studios outside of NYC. (Rumor has it the filmmakers had poster a sign- "Screw Adoplh Zukor" on the studio door. Zukor was then head of Paramount!) Film begins with a wild montage of near nude furies soaring over Manhattan and attacking various sinners. It's a scene that will floor you, and keep you glued to the screen! Then we go to the center of the story, attorney Lee Gentry (a superb Claude Rains), a womanizing, authority hating egomaniac. During an argument with his mistress, singer Carman Brown (Margo) Gentry accidentally fires a gun at Carman. Thinking her dead, he builds up an alibi. Torn by the fear that he might get caught by a legal system he belittles, he goes deeper into insanity and crime. I won't say what happens, but those furies get the last laugh. Obviously a small budget was used here, but this is fantastic film-making. Don't miss!