Welles was kept very much in check on this by Sam Spiegel - he needed to prove he could make a film in a straightforward manner and not get carried away into the 'excesses' of Kane and Ambersons. The result is one of his least distinctive films. The bit he was most pleased with is a South America episode featuring the Welles Nazi character, which was deemed too strange, and twenty minutes was cut. There's a little bit of the flavour of this in the opening, as Konstantin Shayne enters the US in Russell Metty's chiaroscuro lighting - this definitely has the feeling of nightmare. It's dazzling. And whilst things do become a little more conventional in a white picket fence town, it's by no means uninteresting. Welles' camera is constantly tracking from on high, there's a lovely long take in the woods, ending in murder, the dog becomes suspicious... Plus great scenes at the hardware store, where everyone helps themselves to coffee, with Billy House.
It was also the first drama film to show concentration camp footage.
Anthony Veiller is credited with the script, which was also written uncredited by John Huston and Welles, from Victor Trivas story. With Edward G Robinson, Loretta Young, Philip Merivale, Richard Young (Tomorrow is Forever, The Dark Mirror). Music Bronislaw Kaper.
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