Good start, but then it gets ruined

Crappy film

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Splendid acting all the way in this dark play of intrigue treating you with some very spectacular surprises. This lurid and scheming sly character of a reckless and shameless opportunist fits Dirk Bogarde's prying kind of acting perfectly, and I have never seen him better, but the prize goes to Margaret Lockwood - it's impossible to start with to recognize her as Margaret Lockwood. She is his perfect match and proves quite capable of handling this intelligent and calculating psychopath of a human failure as no one else. Kay Walsh, on the other hand, takes him on differently with kindness and sympathy but only to prove the hardest and cleverest woman of them all - their final volcano eruption of a quarrel makes the film glow of glory like an overwhelming theatre performance. It's an amazing story and film of amazing characters, each one shining in her own virtuoso performance, and even Kathleen Harrison adds to it with her very own idiosyncrasy of adorable honesty and simplicity. It's a real treat of a film for the noir lovers, especially if they know how to enjoy tense chamber drama of passion, crime and deceit like a best one of Hitchcock's, and it will even be well worth seeing a film like this occasionally again.

Late Film-Noir from Britain Starring a Stellar Cast (Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood, and Kay Walsh) and Directed by the More Than Competent Lewis Gilbert, with the Cinematography by the Always Interesting and Hammer Regular John Asher.While Our Friends Across the Pond Struggled Somewhat in Delivering Quintessential Film-Noir, it Wasn't for Lack of Trying. It Just Seems that the Noir Genre, was Creatively More at Home in Hollywood Portraying the Inner Cities of the USA.Anyway, This is a Wholly Enjoyable, Well Acted, and Engaging Story of a Beautiful, Boyish, Homicidal, Homosexual, Madman Played by the Charming Bogarde. His Looks and Demeanor Help the Odd Fellow Attract the Aging Lonely Hearts Type, Although Beneath It All He is Clearly Looney Tunes.He Tries Hard to Manage His New Prey (Lockwood), After He's Done Away With His First Wife and Found That Her Will has Left Him Out Without a Pound. But She is Having None of It and This is Where the Film Intrigues and Explodes Into Confrontations and a Battle of Wits.Some Do Not Like the Contrived Ending, but Certainly Getting There is All the Fun. After a Stunning Opening at an Amusement Park that is Visually Quite Startling and Different, the Movie Retreats to the Drawing Room Most of the Time. A Bit Stagy but the Dialog and the Things Going On and About the Stuffy Mansion are Noirish and it's All Done with a Sarcastic Sting.

The reason I gave this a 1 is simply that I will not be ripped off even if 99% of an offering is fabulous. One reviewer(MagicStarfire) even goofily indicated a plot hole in the reason Teddy murders Mony claiming it resulted after the inebriated explanation by Mony concerning the lawyers first visit. All that means is the reviewer didn't understand or listen to the actual conversation between the two in so far as Mony clearly was UNclear and made it sound as if she was leaving her money to her family(sister in this case) NOT Teddy. Teddy understandably misunderstood her ramblings. Some fans need to pay attention more attentively. In any event the real "Grand Canyon" of all plot holes is the fact that after he is exposed and escapes the house he jumps into his car and takes off only to find the road blocked by the lawyers car pointing toward the house and the sister's car(on which he had just cut the hydraulic brakes which will not fail immediately folks, by the way, explaining why she was able to stop on the flat straight roadway just 100 feet from the house) pointing away from the house. So what does he do? Does he get into the lawyers car and backup and turn that car and continue to escape.......no.....he jumps into the car he just tampered with and drives down a steep hill on which he will surely pump out the rest of his brake fluid and crash.........ridiculous for a number of reasons. He is clearly an expert mechanic. He was no longer in a panic if he ever actually was. He was a standard sociopath and clearly not suicidal. He was clearly familiar with those three vehicles and knew which was which and whose was whose. We were ripped off by this contrived ending and I object to it most strenuously. It was almost as bad as ordering a hot fudge sundae with everything and finding out it was made with low fat yogurt. If Teddy were hanged or got away in the lawyers car or joined the navy or murdered everyone in the house, it would have been a perfect movie.

I watched this film this evening for the first time. It's a bit stagy at times (understandable because of the movie's basis in a stage play). This has one bad effect - there is too much dialog in the conclusion, with Dirk Bogarde and Kay Walsh's final confrontation being too long as the psychological control see-saws between them over each other.Dirk Bogarde has become one of the forgotten figures of British cinema in the last thirty years, because of his decision to have a remarkably quiet lifestyle. Up to the 1970s, when he made Visconti's "The Damned", and "Death In Venice", he was one of the leading British cinema stars with great name recognition in America. But after that, the star appeared increasingly infrequently. He would live for several decades more, but by the time he died (even though he had gotten honored) he was like an afterthought. It was a regrettable conclusion for a fine acting career.Bogarde played all kinds of films, from comedies like "Doctor In The House" and "Doctor At Sea" (as Dr. Simon Sparrow) to dramas like "The Spanish Gardener" to war films like "A Bridge Too Far". A homosexual in real life, he portrayed a blackmailed one in "Victim". He was able to do costume films, such as "H.M.S.Defiant". And that last film brings up an interesting point - Bogarde was quite good at playing villains. His character in "The Damned" is a fortune hunter marrying into a Krupp-like family, who willingly sells his soul to the Nazis to get backup for his ambitions (and eventually is out-maneuvered by even more ruthless figures). In "Libel" he is fighting charges of impersonation and treason, playing two men who were in a P.O.W. camp together (one a good guy, one a sneak).Bogarde plays "Teddy" Bare, a charming creep who romances elderly, rich women. He aims at Mona Washbourne, and succeeds with her, but before he kills her she changes her will so he can't benefit. He then aims at a younger woman (Margaret Leighton), who is loud and common. Someone on this thread compared Bogarde's character to Charlie Chaplin as "Monsieur Verdoux". If one does that (although Chaplin is far more suave), Leighton resembles a rougher version of Martha Raye. But she is also not easy to twist like Washbourne had seemed. So Bogarde aims for Kay Walsh, another older woman with money. He thinks she might be a better target - and then he starts finding her quite unsettling. Is he pursuing Walsh as another Victim, or is she hunting him, and why?The conclusion is quite predictable (unfortunately) due to one of the characters showing up for the last confrontation, suggesting what has to happen to Bogarde. But the acting (especially Leighton's lower class rich woman who is fragile despite her hard shell) is quite good. And Bogarde is such a fascinating creep...as he was in all his villain roles.