Sick Product of a Sick System

Awesome Movie

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

(Flash Review)A bank cashier, with a heart for painting, who is stuck in a drab marriage breaks up what he thought was a street mugging of an attractive lady. He befriends this woman who had ulterior motives for keeping in contact. Based on her false assumption of this man's true profession and financial stability, she begins to persuade him to give her money for her and her secret boyfriend. How long will this go on? Will the cashier uncover her true motives and how will his depressive life effect any reaction he may have if the truth comes out? This story was well-written, edited, paced, acted, and effective use of cinematography. It also used some unexpected effects at key moments. A prime example of great Film Noir.

Bank cashier Edward G. Robinson (Chris) has wasted his life working as a bank cashier for 25 years. Imagine that! What a nightmare. His boss Samuel S. Hinds (Charles) rewards his long service by giving him a watch which he probably doesn't want. Anyway, Robinson expresses his gratitude and heads home whereupon he comes across damsel-in-distress Joan Bennett (Kitty) and rescues her from a beating. They strike up a friendship but Bennett is devious. She and boyfriend Dan Duryea (Johnny) have a plan to milk this new friendship to get some cash out of it.The cast are all good in this film and I immediately recognized Rosalind Ivan (Adele) who plays Robinson's wife. She had a similar role, which she plays perfectly, in the film "The Suspect" (1944) as the wife of Charles Laughton. In that film, Laughton dispatches her, quite rightly, as she is a nasty piece of work. Once again, she plays a character who is truly deserving of some kind of punishment. As for our 3 leads, I feel that they all get a fate that none of them deserve. This film dishes out some pretty unfair bleakness for all involved in the main plot.The moral of the story is buy pieces of art as an investment because the prices are astronomically ludicrous. And no-one really knows a good piece of art when they see it so get cracking with the crayons! And if you feel sorry for Edward G. in this film, just remember that he still has that watch he was given at the beginning of the film. Straight on ebay.

Black and white, but so good, in marked contrast to some others of that era.Poor old Chris Cross (Robinson), looks so hopeless in all the scenes. Robinson is superb as he stumbles through the personal failures. Fancy even trying to court someone young enough to be his daughter? But he does, and then tries to buy her affections! An amateur painter who doesn't know the value of his "work" (who the heck would really pay for ANY of that stuff? - that's so comical).Kitty (Joan Bennett) is devious, believable, and thoroughly entertaining - as is Margaret Lindsay (Millie) and all the other support actors.And there are a numbers of seriously funny scenes and lines - that's a bit unusual for that era? I've given it a 9.

What a very bad-tempered film. I wasn't a huge fan, personally. It felt like they kept throwing the main lead under the bus when he did nothing wrong, but then again he was terribly naive and the whole time everything was just a massive mess without a good ending. It wasn't the best of stories or scenarios.It never seemed like the ending would end up the way it did, either. It felt so random. It was all about art and getting money and love affairs, and it ends like that? It doesn't make sense to me. I did not care for the plot of the film for the way it handled the characters or their development or lack thereof. If anything they didn't change at all, and it only focused on the negativity and the deceit rather than how they characters responded to it. Sure Kitty and Johnny had a lot of interaction but there was nothing substantial to them. That and the plot holes are enormous; how did the two know Chris was going to come to the rescue when he did? How did the police know who and when the killers were located/were? Those were major key points in the plot and they are easily debunked.Overall, not as good as I would have hoped. The photography isn't as good either, and there was nothing particularly interesting with the execution of it either. This would have made an excellent noir film if it was made better. At least in my opinion.