Nightmare

Noirvembro 2024 dia 18: Noir baseado em Cornell Woolrich. Segunda adaptação do Maxwell Shane para a mesma estória do Woolrich, dessa vez contando com uma lenda do cinema no elenco na Pele de Robinson. A primeira metade é intrigante e interessante, mas perde a força depois. YTS. Noirvembro 2024 https://boxd.it/A5BUq

This was a fun movie with a goofy premise.

It looks and feels very much like an extended episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"...with a REALLY cheesy opening sequence. Once Edward G. Robinson shows up, it gets a lot more interesting, acting-wise--veteran character actor Rhys Williams is his sheriff counterpart. Connie Russell is good as Stan's girl--and an excellent singer. Having grown up with those Folger's coffee commercials, I know Mrs. Olsen's voice anywhere, and recognized it as soon as Virginia Christine opened her mouth.

Not bad.

From what I can tell, there's little difference between this and the original in terms of structure, the lead is changed from banker to musician, and that does give us a couple of nice musical interludes, but otherwise the story is beat for beat identical. That's not too bad since it's a fun story. Like the original it also has some nice cinematography that hasn't been preserved at all. The lead is worse than in the original, but this has Edward G. Robinson so I guess they come out about even.

Maxwell Shane does this Fear in the Night remake with style. Most notably, he changes the lead character to a musician and uses music and the New Orleans very nicely. Again we have the great Edward G. doing his thing, and Kevin McCarthy does a fine job, although his voiceover is kind of clunky. I was surprised to find myself swept up in the plot, even though I knew exactly how it would pan out. The tension is maintained throughout and the film sports some decent cinematography.