Victor Grandison (Claude Rains) is a writer, art collector, and host of a weekly radio program where he narrates true crime stories. Unfortunately for Grandison, death has recently struck all too close to home. First his beloved ward, Matilda Frazier, seemingly died during a shipwreck months ago. Now his secretary Roslyn (Barbara Woodell) has been murdered, the killer making it look like suicide. Shortly after Roslyn's murderer, a young man named Steve Howard (Michael North) pays Grandison a visit, making a shocking claim - he was married to Matilda before her death. But the surprises are only just beginning, as they learn Matilda (Joan Caulfield) survived the accident - but doesn't remember being married to Howard. Lots of twists and turns follow...along with more murders, and more questions. Who was responsible for Roslyn's death and why? And is anyone in our little story who they say they are?
Everyone seems to have something to hide in The Unsuspected, a visually striking noir thriller from Michael Curtiz - and the first film review I've written since September 2018! (I've been busy.) During the Golden Age of Hollywood, few directors were able to match Michael Curtiz's output. His tendency to overshoot and embellish the original scripts, sometimes missing deadlines and driving up costs in the process, drove his bosses at Warner Bros. nuts at times. However, his films tended to bring in big bucks, rave reviews, and Oscar wins, and many of them went on to become enduring classics. (I did an INCspotlight special on Curtiz a few years ago, and I wish I'd had Alan K. Rode's in-depth biography of Curtiz handy when I wrote it - although to be fair, it hadn't been published yet.) However, as a studio director, Curtiz didn't reap much of the benefits of his movies' financial successes, and he was tired of fighting with the bigwigs at Warner Bros. for creative control of his films. In 1947, fresh off the success of Life With Father (1947), he set up his own studio within Warner Bros., which would release his films in exchange for a piece of the pie. The Unsuspected, adapted from Charlotte Armstrong's 1945 magazine serial (published as a novel in 1946) was the first movie to be made under the Michael Curtiz Productions banner. WARNING: Here be spoilers! Read further at your own risk! Victor Grandison (Claude Rains) is a writer, art collector, and host of a weekly radio program where he narrates true crime stories. Unfortunately for Grandison, death has recently struck all too close to home. First his beloved ward, Matilda Frazier, seemingly died during a shipwreck months ago. Now his secretary Roslyn (Barbara Woodell) has been murdered, the killer making it look like suicide. Shortly after Roslyn's murderer, a young man named Steve Howard (Michael North) pays Grandison a visit, making a shocking claim - he was married to Matilda before her death. But the surprises are only just beginning, as they learn Matilda (Joan Caulfield) survived the accident - but doesn't remember being married to Howard. Lots of twists and turns follow...along with more murders, and more questions. Who was responsible for Roslyn's death and why? And is anyone in our little story who they say they are? The role of Grandison was originally intended for Humphrey Bogart, but he was unavailable, so Rains ended up nabbing the part. I don't think Bogart would have been a bad choice, but given what a huge fan I am of Claude Rains, one of my favorite actors, I'm not about to complain. He's naturally superb in his multi-faceted role of the mild-mannered, somewhat stuffy radio show host, boosted in no small part by his distinctive smooth line delivery. (Unfortunately, due to his past filmography, his casting is something of a spoiler in and of itself.) Rains isn't the only one to pull his weight in the acting department, though. Audrey Totter and Constance Bennett give solid performances as Grandison's niece and radio director, and Michael North does well enough as Matilda's enigmatic husband. Everyone else...no clunkers, but no real standouts either. The Unsuspected wastes no time grabbing your attention thanks to a strong Max Steiner score (recycled at least in part from 1941's The Maltese Falcon) and some vivid cinematography enhanced by some creative editing. As the film proceeds, however, it's pretty obvious this is being done to distract from the rather weak script. (It wouldn't be the first time Curtiz tried to salvage a film this way - he'd been doing it since he first arrived in Hollywood in the 1920s.) And in all honesty, it kinda works. The plot points and character twists faded from memory not long after I watched this, but the cinematography and editing lingered in the mind for much longer. The story meanders a little bit in the middle, and at first it feels like too much is being thrown at us at a time, although everything does mostly tie together in the end. One scene where the killer concots a seemingly perfect frame-up, however, is perfectly staged, and it's easily the best part of the film aside from Rains's performance - both from an acting, writing, and cinematic perspective. At the time, critics dismissed The Unsuspected's slow-moving story and deemed the visuals wasted on such a mediocre script. It did okay business, but without any big name stars or a more solid screenplay, it wasn't a blockbuster hit or anything. Unfortunately for Curtiz, his next three films would receive a similar reception from critics and audiences. (However, 1948's Romance on the High Seas would not only snag an Academy Award for Best Original Song, but also mark Doris Day's screen debut.) Despite signing a 14-picture deal with Warner Bros., Michael Curtiz Productions closed its doors after only four movies. The Unsuspected certainly has its moments, and it's technically memorable, but I wouldn't call it a must-see. Catch it on TCM some time if it comes on, but it's nothing to hunt down.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About the INCspotlightThe INCspotlight, formerly hosted on the website Channel Awesome, now has a new home on my own website! Categories
All
Archives
November 2022
|