Just finished watching this, and while it was a bit slow in the beginning, this must have the greatest ending of all time. I have seen many other great endings (Usual Suspects, Sixth Sense, Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978, etc.) but this one was really outstanding. Between the phone call being placed to the morgue and the last line "Sorry, wrong number," this film truly had one of the most spectacular endings in film history
Who the fuq are the Knutsens?
The original radio show was, IMHO, one of the two greatest radio presentations ever, the other being Orson Wellss' adaptation of War Of The Worlds.
What I admire the most about this film is the way it was fleshed out from the half hour orignal story.
Captain Warren 'Rip' Murdock: I'm the brass-knuckles-in-the-teeth-to-dance-time type.
Yes, I love how all the pieces fall together so quickly - leading up to the Ending !
Cool
A lot of the credit goes to Lucille Fletcher who possibly was the oly one who could have done such a terrific job in expanding her own radio script.
Captain Warren 'Rip' Murdock: I'm the brass-knuckles-in-the-teeth-to-dance-time type.
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SPOILER
Not just Stanwyck's monologue but Lancaster's reaction when he hears her tell him she would have given him the money anyway. Seeing that regret on his face and seeing him develop a conscience right before the camera is just the tearjerking moment to end all!
"Well, for once the rich white man is in control!" C. M. Burns
SPOILER!!
The ending blew me away. The fact that they killed off the main character in the end was gutsy stuff in the 1940s. Great movie!
"Will you stop feeling sorry for yourself?! It's bad for your complexion!"-"Sixteen Candles"
The MUSIC, wow. Pluck pluck pluck pluck, matching the murderer's unstoppable footsteps, and that continuous shot that pulls back from Leona, outside her window, slithers down the side of the house all covered with vines and shadows, all the way to the first floor where the shadow of a man falls on the wall, and his silhouetted figure opens the window . . . SHUDDER!
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Please put some dashes above your sig line so I won't think it's part of your dumb post.
The fact that they killed off the main character in the end was gutsy stuff in the 1940s.
That why I was shocked by the ending. Even in the final moments I thought Leona was going to evade death.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".
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There were plot holes, like the DA openly talking about the case in front of his wife who he knew to be an ex partner of the accused. Overall however I thought it was a great story and the ending was even better.
shareI don't feel it was a plot hole.
I felt the husband was jealous of the fact his wife still held feelings for Henry.
Consequently, his character resorted to being evasive and passive aggressive with her.
Sally wasn't Henry's partner; they grew up together in the same small town.
sharere Bluesdoctor's: "But 2 major unlikely coincidences weaken the movie's credibility: 1) Out of all the conversations occurring in New York City, a woman hears 2 men plotting to kill her that very night on a supposedly random phone misconnection."
I don't know how the telephone system works, but I figured that since the operator was ringing her husband's work phone -which was off the hook- that the implication was that the last call made from that phone had been to one of the two men who were now discussing the murder and that the line was therefore in some way open to being crossed.
I'm sure the technicalities of this are all wrong, but within the world of film plotting I was happy to go along with it.
it was ballsy indeed but very much in tone with the rest of the movie, i would've been more surprised if she hadn't been killed at the end
so many movies, so little time
The last ten minutes reach a feverish pitch, thanks to Stanwyck's absolutely brilliant performance, culminating in an unforgettable ending. What a great film. Not easy to follow all the time with the many flashbacks but well worth the effort. A very young Burt Lancaster is also quite good as her husband. It does start out very slow but once it really gets going, it becomes a film noir masterpiece, one of the all times great. This is as good as anything Hitchcock did. 10/10
shareI’ve seen this and heard the original Suspense radio theater broadcasts. The film is good but the radio episode is MUCH better, as it is compact and very tense throughout. The film by comparison feels a bit bloated and loses some steam midway through.
share