Not The Best Film Noir Ever
The Big Heat blows this so far out of the water. This movie just kind of meanders from one scene to the next. The windswept romance between bad girl and good guy is forced and soapy. Kirk Douglas never seems clear on anything. There are beautiful locations shot by a great director who has done much, much better pictures. Hell, I enjoy the plot of Curse of the Demon over this.
I keep trying and trying to love this, but wind up just kinda liking it okay. It's never tightly wound like Noir films should be, or very suspenseful. I keep trying and trying to discover how this is considered by most to be the best Noir ever made. I do see that the melodrama, backstory and line-by-line dialogue does embrace the entirety of the genre, but I don't think it ever really... sets it ablaze.
As for Jacques Tourneur, as far as creative direction... and he was one of the best of Noir, Horror and Westerns... CAT PEOPLE is far more involving, and creatively shot.
Love Tourneur, love Mitchum, like Douglas but... gez louise I want this to just work for me already. I'm not going against it. I'm not trying to push buttons or go against the grain. I just wanna... see what most see in this picture, within the frame. W/ every viewing I keep finding myself way outside it, looking it and not really, IN there.
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