Fascinating…

Confusing...

Just caught this last night at the London Film Festival - a print of the new UCLA restoration.

I liked it a great deal, in particular every time Steve Cochran was on screen; he was mesmerizing.

The ending was a lot of fun and really bizarre though it was ever so slightly disjointed could have been (and this is my two cents) improved if, the first time we see the auxilliary pedals and the near miss with the train, Peter Lorre had made a comment along the lines of "You're obsessed with beating that train, you'll never do it" and perhaps Cochran replies "I'll make it one day".

It just seemed a wasted scene without that little bit more explanation.

Merely a suggestion if I had a time machine and SAG membership in the mid 1940s.

Well, yeah. The pacing seemed to be quite seriously off though a lot of the time - things kept happening sort of unnaturally fast, the plot developments felt forced instead of playing out in an organic way. But indeed fascinating and confusing for sure (and it appears that moreso than intended as acommodating the lengthy dream sequence creates a scenario that somehow doesn't entirely add up... or so it seems). Another glaring weakness is Robert Cummings who gives another one of his trademark ultra-wooden performances - this guy really was something like Keanu Reeves of his era. Amazing how his blandly handsome, sort of naive good guy looks managed to sustain such a long career since act this man very clearly - almost pathologically, in fact - could not. Overall though... it does keep the interest and induces the titillating sense of imbalance. 6/10.



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

I just saw it, a decent film.

I thinks it's just an okay film