Directed by Anthony Mann
First National Pictures, Inc. Producer: Sam Bischoff. Screenwriter: Niven Busch, Rian James. Cinematographer: Sidney Hickox. Editor: Thomas Richards. With: Charles Farrell, Bette Davis, Ricardo Cortez, Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins. 35mm, b/w, 64 min.
The inky noir style and fatalist themes that would emerge full force in director Anthony Mann’s T-Men (1948) and Border Incident (1949) begin to take shape in this, Mann’s sixth feature, an early gothic B-thriller about a returning vet lured into a psychological nightmare by the promise of lov
While recovering from combat wounds he received in the South Pacific, Marine Sergeant Johnny Meadows starts up a correspondence with a woman whose name he finds written inside a book of poetry, A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad. The exchange turns romantic and Meadows’ sights turn to Monteflores, California, where his mysterious pen pal, Rosemary Blake, lives and where he heads after his release. Upon arriving at the brooding, cliffside Blake mansion, however, Meadows meets Rosemary’s mother, Hilda Blake, who invites him in and makes excuses for her absent daughter: Rosemary will be back soon and then they’ll all be happy. The shadows close in from there as Meadows and the town’s new doctor, Leslie Ross, begin to unravel Hilda’s veil of secrecy, threatening to expose a dangerous and deadly trut
Helene Thimig, as Hilda Blake, turns in a wickedly over-the-top performance as a woman on the edge as Mann displays his facility with making the most of a tight budget.
Paul Malcolm
Preserved by the Archives at Paramount Pictures Corporation and UCLA Film & Television Archive from the original 35mm nitrate picture and track negatives and a 16mm acetate print. Laboratory services by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Film Technology Company, Inc. Special thanks to: Barry Allen, Andrea Kalas, Laura Thornburg.
