Tuesday 9 May 2017

Phantom Lady (1944 Robert Siodmak)

Produced by Hitch's assistant Joan Harrison and derived from the nightmarish mind of Cornell Woolrich (under his author pseudonym William Irish), screenwritten by Bernard Schoenfeld (The Dark Corner and Sirk's There's Always Tomorrow). Alan Curtis gets into the hot water pretty quickly picking up Fay Helm and her phantom hat, which goes on to enrage singer Aurora. And though colleague Ella Raines starts tracking down the truth, witnesses (Andrew Tombes' barman, Elisha Cook's drummer) start dropping like flies.


Top billed is Franchot Tone as a man with a twitch; Thomas Gomez good as detective. (The scene at the beginning with the detectives, including particularly unsettling Joseph Crehan and Regis Toomey, is quite Kafkaesque).

We both liked Elwood Bredell's lighting
There isn't any music, which gives it a spare feel. Nicely composed and shot - 'Woody' a B picture cameraman - for Universal.

'Kansas' isn't too convincing as a moll, but seems to fool Elisha Cook Jr

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