Not having read anything in advance, about until the midway point I thought this was going to be just a run-of-the-mill B-Noir and that it would turn out Jacqueline was held captive because of some sort of money or love related plot point. But it turned out to be something quite different and unexpected. Very few (if any at all) movies at the time dared to take such a turn in such a direction almost halfway through. This became popular many years later, especially in the 90s. For instance Tarantino wrote the first third of Dusk Till Dawn as a typical dark psychological thriller and then turned it into a monster movie out of the blue half an hour in. The 7th Victim also makes me think of Polansky's The 9th Gate, not only because of the number in the title, but also because in that movie we also found out late on that the antagonists were occultists, although there it did turn out there was actual black magic or whatever it was.
Anyway, this movie also surprised me with the scene in the hallway with the blinking lights that posters above already mentioned. The blinking light was such a simple effect, yet very effective and it seems nobody had thought of it until this movie came along. It was a very unuasual, surrealistic and innovative scene.
Another scene that stood out for me was the one at the party, after the big reveal that Jacqueline had been seeing the doctor, where just as the poet started towards Kim Hunter and took her by the hand, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata started playing and everybody seemed to float and speak as if they were performing an opera or a ballet. That scene was pure poetry!
I'm here, Mr. Man, I can not tell no lie and I'll be right here 'till the day I die
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