It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Loretta Young plays a woman whose husband (Barry Sullivan) has a heart condition and is bed-ridden. She doesn't realize it but her husband believes she is having an affair with his doctor and longtime friend (Bruce Cowling). He mails a letter to the district attorney, telling a wild story about how the two are plotting to kill him. He then tells Young what he has done and promptly keels over of a heart attack! Young is panic-stricken and desperate to get that letter back before she is wrongly accused of her husband's murder.I'm not sure why this movie has always stood out to me but it has. I enjoy it tremendously. Loretta Young is terrific, especially when she starts to freak out. But even before that she has this nervous quality about her performance that makes the later panic seem in keeping with her character. Some have criticized her character as being unduly stupid in order to service the plot. I don't feel this is true. Everything hits her quickly. Within a matter of minutes she hears what her husband planned and then he dies, so naturally she wouldn't be thinking clearly. Barry Sullivan gives one of his best performances as the crazy husband. Contrary to what some reviews have stated, he did not exhibit a sudden change of behavior from nice guy to psycho nor was his psychosis brought on by his heart medicine. The film shows in flashbacks that this man is self-serving, possessive, and manipulative. Further, Sullivan tells Young a story from his childhood that paints a clear picture that he has always been disturbed.This is a wonderfully subversive suspense film. Here you have this crazy story going on in a typical suburban American home during a decade in which the idyllic picture of American suburbia was born. My advice is to pay full attention to the film for answers to many of the nitpickers' complaints. I can think of far more respected and beloved films with plots that are full of more contrivances than anything in this. In my opinion, this is a real treat that builds slowly then grips you and doesn't let go. One of my favorite films of the '50s.

The premise sounded a bit far-fetched at first but upon further consideration, I think the story of a demented but cunning man wanting to frame his wife for his suicide could make a plausible movie even if it were set in current times (or at least an episode of CSI). Set in the 50's though, it all comes across as a tad too silly, when Loretta Young runs around pleading for the letter from whomever it's with. 5I'm not really a fan of Young's acting, probably because she's often pigeonholed as a put-upon wife, which is a pretty limited role. At least her Oscar win for The Farmer's Daughter for playing a Swedish-farmgirl- turned-congresswoman was quite deserved - it was a juicy part and she was great with it.

I've never cared for Loretta Young but I really LOVE this movie…though I suspect for all the wrong reasons.Fans of film noir may go for the voice-over narration of a hard-boiled private eye, but me, I'm a sucker for a film that features the breathless, panicky narration of a woman in distress (like Doris Day in the 1956 film, "Julie"). Loretta Young narrates "Cause for Alarm!" and the exclamation point in title is no blunder. The film starts out at fever pitch and never lets up to rather hilarious effect.Young plays a perfect 50s housewife who endures one exceptionally crappy, hot summer day. Young is married to Barry Sullivan, a terminally ill, verbally abusive husband who is also suffering from paranoid delusions (he wasn't always that way, a brief flashback shows how they met "cute" when he was just a creepily slimy suitor heavy on charm and low on friendship loyalty). Young's general twitchiness gives way to full out hysteria when, in rather rapid order, her unstable hubby pulls a gun on her and accuses her of conspiring with the doctor (Sullivan's former friend whom he stole Young away from) to kill him. What's more, Sullivan has had her unwittingly mail an incriminating letter to the D.A. detailing his allegations. When he inconveniently (or conveniently, after all, he was going to shoot her) drops dead in a way that will only serve to seal her doom, Young spends the rest of the film tying herself into knots trying to keep his death a secret and get that letter back.It's clear that all of this is supposed to be dramatic as hell, but Young's performance is so earnest and her missteps so consistent, that it plays like a Carol Burnett skit. It's hilarious and wildly enjoyable even if you do prefer to take it seriously.Adding to the comedy is the fact that the nastiness of the circumstances and Sullivan's bullying cruelty contrasts so sharply with the nostalgically artificial-looking neighborhood they live in (favored by TV shows like "Father Knows Best" and "The Donna Reed Show"). Watching Young and Sullivan spar is like watching a Rod Serling version of those old Folger coffee commercials where the husband's criticism of his wife's coffee always struck me as masking a deeper hostility.Peppered throughout are some great bit parts like Sullivan's nosy aunt Clara ( "A man wrapped up himself makes a very small package!"), and my favorite, a really cute neighbor child (cute because he is so odd and endearingly natural on camera) who calls himself Hoppy. He is such a doll and a welcome relief from the kind of Disney Channel androids that pass for child actors today.To say that I find it impossible to take the film seriously is not to say it isn't good. No, in fact it's rather excellent. Even as you're giggling over Young's clumsy lies to the postman, her neat as a pin kitchen, and high-strung hand-wringing, you can't help but root for her. I've seen it many times and never tire of watching it. Of course I'm laughing my head off all the while, but a film that entertains is a film that entertains, right?

Poor Loretta Young didn't have much luck with husbands in small towns/suburbia in the movies, did she? They were all trying to kill her! Here it's Barry Sullivan, her paranoid war veteran husband, with a heart condition, who wants her dead. He thinks that Loretta's longtime doctor friend Bruce Cowling (playing the bland hero type), in love with her, is conspiring with Loretta to kill him, so he tries to get in first. This sparks a chain of bad events for Young, and director Tay Garnett (best known for noir "The Postman Always Rings Twice") ramps up the suspense nicely in this brief little potboiler. Obviously low budget, Garnett uses this to his advantage in stripping the action bare down to the frantic Young. While it's no classic in the noir cycle, it's worthy of your time.