Obsession

Happy noirvember, everybody! Let's get things rolling with a recommendation: 'Obsession' AKA 'The Hidden Room' has a strong premise, game actors and well-written dialogue. It's good, clean fun.

Came for the grimy photography, stayed for Wodehouse Columbo.

A clever film that mixes wry comedy with a thriller and a bit of noir. Newton is fun as the always extremely calm and polite protagonist (who is also the villain). Its main flaw is that it never really feels as tense as the premise promises, but still good fun.

Well-made (and -acted)...but all rather contrived. And that Finsbury was a regular Columbo ("It's purely a matter of routine...oh, there's just one more thing...").

Rather dull for the most part. The crime itself is unexciting and its lingering nature is damping down the suspense that doesn’t build effectively.

Not bad.

I think I would have liked a little more hatred from the wife. Built that up a bit more. Otherwise this was a remarkable Obsession (1949). Robert Newton was a truly cunning revengeful husband. One I was almost rooting for. Then came one of the cricket boys, Naunton Wayne, to investigate the disappearance of his wife's lover, and he was the most sympathetic superintendent, and I started rooting for him.

This one might have been a little ahead of it's time. A jealous husband takes his wife's lover captive and plans to dispose of his body in an acid bath. Not graphic at all just suspenseful and some good dialogue and performances.

Robert Newton is a better Claude Rains than Claude Rains.

*Spoilers* Newton's chilling and creepy performance is the highlight of generally well-constructed, but frustratingly uneven thriller -- when it sticks to the battle of wills between Newton and Brown, it is a spellbinder, but surrounding story elements (especially the police investigation) fail to build any tension -- especially the wet-blanket climax where we don't even see the villain get his comeuppance proper! Also hurt by an at times overstated, even jaunty (!!!) music score.

This is great! A perfect murder noir with some British coyness in both the characters and the film itself. It's really effective at building up the tension and the occasional reveals are all perfect. There's a little bit too much luck and coincidence in the climax, but otherwise it's just excellent.

"Noir doesn't exist without that visual elaboration." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/04/episode-55-films-noir-of-edward-dmytryk.html