The House on Telegraph Hill

An enjoyable little noir thriller, not first-rate but nervy and paranoid, with a cleverly plotted resolution.

Underwhelming is probably the best way to describe this one. There's nothing really wrong with it, but it doesn't really excel either. Basehart is probably the best part of the film, delivering the ambiguity of his role very well, but his is a secondary character and he's not so good that he can carry the film on his own. The two leading ladies are ok, but rather bland and they never give much insight into their respective characters. It's just compelling enough to keep the interest til the end.

One of the most effective movies I've seen in a long time to crawl with pulsing rhythm and nerve-racking build-up to its climax. Beforehand, ambiguity and suspicion are juggled with deft hands, and the pay-off is clever and worthwhile.

The first half is a lot of ho-hum setup, unfortunately the payoff isn't spectacular enough. It's good, the tension builds nicely and there's some ambiguity. It just doesn't have enough "oomph" to it. It's also too bad that nothing much is done with the Holocaust survivor angle, or even the stolen identity business. Cortese is excellent, though... the film was meant as a showcase for her, and does that job well. Basehart is fine, too, although I'm not a big fan of his to begin with.

Does a good job of hiding something sinister even if you know some shit is going down. The nerve is there. You're just waiting for the masks to fall. And they story is compelling enough for the wait to be rewarding.

Terrível Suspeita estreava há 70 anos em New York. Suspeita do Hitchcock com um holocausto twist, parece derivativo, mas não é, a meia hora final é de grande tensão e só perde para nossa racionalidade ao pensarmos se ela realmente queria salvá-lo por que não o levou vomitar no banheiro? A explicação racional talvez derive do inconsciente da protagonista não querer efetivamente salvá-lo. Plus: Fotografia deslumbrante de Lucien Ballard, como usual. WEBRip RARBG.

I was a bit divided on this film for most of it's running time. It seems to forget it's own backstory for a lot of the film, letting Baker chastise Cortese for having been an absent mother without reminding Baker that she was absent because she had been in a concentration camp. Basehart is always good as a slightly ambiguous menace, but Cortese is a little too melodramatic for my tastes. It was the really mad climax of this film that really sold me on it.

Good film noir, with some excellent cinematography.

Her sudden plunge into paranoia seemed rather contrived.

I didn't really think I was liking this that much and then I found it grabbing me more and more as it heated up. The tension really rises as the film moves along. I thought Basehart and Lundigan were probably a mistake to cast together as they look quite alike in this and it can be a little distracting/confusing when they're in scenes with each other. I kind of found myself having to reorient myself whenever there was a cut. Good movie. Give it a chance even if you aren't liking it at first.

A mostly-good horror-noir, although it almost feels like two different movies pushed together. At first we see a war refugee begin to impersonate another. But that story mostly disappears as she starts to become convinced her new husband is trying to kill her. A few twisty turns later and we have a decent resolution. It's a bit more atmospheric than I usually like, and Cortese seems a little cold in her part (although a bit better when she thinks she's crazy) but still pretty good.