A Bit Overrated


Yes, I know it's a classic but I couldn't buy Fred MacMurray and all his "You bet I'll get out of here, baby" schtick. He din't want the part in the first place and for good reason.

And did Billy Wilder really have to have vertical blind shadows in every indoor scene?
"You see, they're caged, caged, CAGED!!!!"

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What's the matter baby? Don'tcha like the way they talked back then? Lol

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The way they talked was fine, but not Fred MacMurray talking that way.

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Yeah I suppose hearing Prof. Ned Brainard calling a woman "baby" all the time is a bit weird. Lol

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Sigh. I finally saw this film, being a huge fan of films from all eras but definitely including this one and for film noir in general. I love The Maltese Falcon, Out of the Past, The Big Sleep, Laura, Scarlett Street, all the great ones. It was an outlier not yet to have seen this one, and I very much looked forward to seeing it. I even enjoyed MacMurray (on TCM this month) for his role with Carole Lombard in True Confession (which is not rated as high as this one).

But while I would not say this is a bad film by any means, I was a bit disappointed. I thought Wilder did a very good if not perfect job here, and Robinson was great as usual for him. But I found something lacking in the chemistry between Stanwyck and MacMurray. It just didn't seem all that persuasive. Or it might have been that the Neff character was problematic. I tend to blame the actors, though. Still, great dialogue, and an interesting enough story even if less than perfect. I gave it an 8, which is a bit less than I had expected, but ftr I was tempted to give it a 7.

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Jeez it's a terrific movie! Fred MacMurray was a great bad guy, should have played one more often.

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MacMurray wasn't playing a bad guy, he was playing a sucker. If only there were more movies captivating like this.

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Great movie. MacMurray was perfect.

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I agree that it was a tad bit overrated, though it was still a very good film.

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Not one bit overrated. Sorry you didn't get it.

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I didn't find it Overrated

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I agree. This movie's a classic for a reason and it's one of the all-time best thrillers.

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Neither did 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of everyone else who watched the movie. Just the attention-seeker who started this thread seems to have a problem with it.

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There's always one... 🙄

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Make that at least two. This movie sucks balls.

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Haha, I'm gonna take movie advice from a troll named "Chip"...Sure, whatever!

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Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler script from a Cain novella? No, this is not overrated.

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it's a great film

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What's so great about it?

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i was on edge of my seat, great acting, directing thrilling it pulled me in

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It's extremely overrated

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It's one of the best films of all time in my opinion. Billy Wilder was one hell of a director.

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