Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

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

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Francis Lederer (James) is an artist with poor temperament, you know, prima donna style. He paints girlfriends who end up dead. This doesn't go un-noticed by Edward Ashley (John) who works with the police to get Lederer convicted of murder. One problem though - is Lederer actually guilty? You know something is wrong in this film when Lederer invites Ann Rutherford (Linda) to his birthday party.......and the only other guest is his MOTHER! Yeah - that's normal for a young man. The cast are fine although the women are all given slightly irritating dialogue. Lederer is a good main focus for the film which ticks along but I'm afraid that's all it does - tick along.The title refers to a painting which has a significance once the plot is understood and the idea behind the story will, no doubt, be familiar. However, despite a few slow patches, the film is OK. I have to add that my enjoyment of the film was hampered by the very poor sound quality of the film that I watched, although I am not sure whether or not this is due to my source of purchase.

The Madonna's Secret (1946)A psycho-mystery that broods and clunks along pretty well but too much a twist on a twist kind of movie. In fact, it's so obvious that the main character, a tortured artist, is suspected from the first minute, you know something else is up. What you don't suspect is what, and so by the end there is that final twist. I suppose this should or could have been a Vincent Price Gothic chiller, but in the hands of the leading man, Francis Lederer, it's a dark and serious affair. No camp allowed.This comes near the end of director William Thiele's B-movie career (followed by a slew of Lone Ranger t.v. episodes and then, a step sideways for 36 shows of Cavalcade of America, a staple of 1950s American middlebrow normalcy). So we might be glad the movie is as good as it is, and I think the main reason is ace cinematographer John Alton. There are subtle movements of the camera that make an ordinary conversation take on depth, at least in terms of mise-en-scene. And the truly dramatic lighting (including some obvious back projection stuff of Lederer speeding in a boat at night) is great just to watch. The series of women who pose and/or get themselves killed is curious--they do all look the same at a glance--and might have been more fun if extended a bit more. That is, they are all relatively cardboard characters, including the main character, who can't get out of his angst filled cliché, and so we can't really get involved emotionally in their fates. We just watch. And so thank you Mr. Alton for making that watching worth the ride. If you don't give a hoot about lights and camera, give this a by.

This film noir started out on a rather interesting note, as a theater critic becomes fascinated with the model in a painting and tries to track her down. The central mystery involves the mysterious death of the model of a brooding painter, but I can't say the ending was any sort of surprise.The problem is that once the story gets going, it just doesn't have much to do. This 90-minute movie could have been cut to an hour without losing anything. The movie also suffers from indifferent dialog and plotting (one key character disappears entirely about halfway through the film).It's a pretty nice looking movie and the acting isn't bad, but it just lacks anything to set it above any other B movie.

A step above normal film-noir from low budget studio, Republic. Francis Lederer is a painter who is haunted by the memory of his murdered fiancée. All his new work is now finished with the face of the dead woman. When a new model of Lederer's is murdered the police grab him up for a chat. After a bout of 3rd degree they let him go for lack of proof. Then another woman turns up dead and Lederer is the prime suspect. Of course the man is being set up. By his own mother no less! It seems she believes none of the women measure up to her standards. Though there is a bit of heavy going in the odd spot, the film does have some rewards for the viewer. The cast does rise above the story and the look of the film is quite good. Lederer, Ann Rutherford, Gail Patrick and serial queen Linda Stirling are all good in this low-renter. Then we have director of photography John Alton providing his usual assortment of shadows for just the right atmosphere. Director William Thiele is best known for a couple of the lesser Tarzan movies, TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY and TARZAN TRIUMPHS. A decent time-waster for the noir crowd.