Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Some things I liked some I did not.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Some motion pictures about famed literary writers come across rather stilted or insipid, but this is one of the more inspired productions. Much better than 20th Century Fox's THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE, this film-- based on the life and legend of Poe-- comes to us from MGM and it boasts a wonderful cast: Joseph Cotten, Barbara Stanwyck, Louis Calhern, Leslie Caron, Jim Backus—need I go on? Stanwyck was a last-minute replacement for Marlene Dietrich, and while one wonders what putting Dietrich with Calhern would have been like, the results of this motion picture concoction are so smooth and so good that it seems to have turned out the way it should have. The film has some genuinely suspenseful moments, and it brims with atmosphere, enhanced by the studio's generally excellent production values.

I am giving this film two stars, and the reason is that it wastes Barbara Stanwyck. I have seen a large number of her films, and she always stole the picture. People she appeared in films with? Gable, Cooper, Fonda, Bogart, Robinson, Wayne & Elvis (Yep she stole "Roustabout" from Elvis). I can go on, but the point is Stanwyck is dominated by an extremely boring Joseph Cotton as Edgar Allan Poe. Is it a bomb? No it is not, but it is not a Stanwyck Picture for Barbara fans. If you are not that familiar with Barbara's work start with "Ball Of Fire" & "Meet John Doe", this should be about the last film you watch of hers.

While not in the top drawer of mystery films of the era, the film should come as a pleasant surprise for those interested in the period and definitely will register with films of the noir genre. The plot is difficult to sum up quickly but rest assured that it is literary and interesting, involves at least one or two good twists and sports a fine cast of players better known for work in more famous films. Joseph Cotten is particularly fine as the man of mystery who foils an attempt to rob the inheritance related to the demise of an old reprobate (Louis Calhern) in 1840's New York. Throw in Barbara Stanwyck at her most sultry and Leslie Carone at her most innocent and you have a film that does not exactly match the excitement generated by the opening scenes but holds one's attention nonetheless.

Saw this on Television the other day --- The writers know how to create great dialogue --- Movie has been under-rated with technical critique --- See it if you have a chance and choose for yourself. I am searching for the screen play so that I may examine the lines in greater detail. Also I am investigating how the screen writers collaborated to produce quality bit of badinage and intelligences. I went to TNT but their database doesn't have it listed so I can't buy the film from them. I want to see it again if ever it is broadcast again so I may confirm my first impression. I think, to make this comment longer, that the best comments are the most distilled comments; ones that do not show any attempt to show or claim superior knowledge. That explains why my preferences demand concise, to the point, relevant dialogue lines. I hope you will forgive me for being so wordy.