...because it implies perhaps some war time comedy about people meeting and hastily marrying, but instead you get a noir/mystery spartanly done.
I didn't much care for this film made on the cheap at Monogram in 1944 and directed by William Castle. The acting is fine for sure starring Kim Hunter as a bride, Millie Baxter, who barely knows her husband, Paul Baxter, and now they are reuniting after being married in a whirlwind courtship several weeks before. The traveling salesman husband who seems to be harboring a great big secret is played by Dean Jagger. Robert Mitchum plays Fred Graham, Millie's torch carrying old boyfriend and would-have-liked-to-be husband. Neil Hamilton plays police lieutenant Blake looking for a murderer who may have fled from Philadelphia to New York. Yes, there are fine actors doing fine acting, but in service to what exactly? This is what is hard to figure out.
Lieutenant Blake makes some big leaps in logic to believe that one particular fellow - Paul Baxter - who has come from Philadelphia to New York is the murderer he is seeking. How many people travel between those cities every day? And he seems to go off on a tangent about a serial killer from two years ago that he caught that has nothing to do with this case, probably just to pad the running time. Millie and Paul go on the run but they don't seem to run very far, probably because that would require further set design and a bigger budget.
There are some interesting Dutch angles and the lighting veers into film noir lighting, yet the set design all seems so generic. You have street signs telling you where you are in New York, but the shots are close ups of buildings that really have no individuality and are obvious cheap sets. When Millie and Paul do the town when they first reunite the sights are shown as stock footage, and the music is too melodramatic.
The most interesting scene in the movie is when Millie and Paul duck into a bar that turns out to be a black establishment in Harlem. This really is a take it or leave it proposition, and probably only a must see for Robert Mitchum completists.
I didn't much care for this film made on the cheap at Monogram in 1944 and directed by William Castle. The acting is fine for sure starring Kim Hunter as a bride, Millie Baxter, who barely knows her husband, Paul Baxter, and now they are reuniting after being married in a whirlwind courtship several weeks before. The traveling salesman husband who seems to be harboring a great big secret is played by Dean Jagger. Robert Mitchum plays Fred Graham, Millie's torch carrying old boyfriend and would-have-liked-to-be husband. Neil Hamilton plays police lieutenant Blake looking for a murderer who may have fled from Philadelphia to New York. Yes, there are fine actors doing fine acting, but in service to what exactly? This is what is hard to figure out.
Lieutenant Blake makes some big leaps in logic to believe that one particular fellow - Paul Baxter - who has come from Philadelphia to New York is the murderer he is seeking. How many people travel between those cities every day? And he seems to go off on a tangent about a serial killer from two years ago that he caught that has nothing to do with this case, probably just to pad the running time. Millie and Paul go on the run but they don't seem to run very far, probably because that would require further set design and a bigger budget.
There are some interesting Dutch angles and the lighting veers into film noir lighting, yet the set design all seems so generic. You have street signs telling you where you are in New York, but the shots are close ups of buildings that really have no individuality and are obvious cheap sets. When Millie and Paul do the town when they first reunite the sights are shown as stock footage, and the music is too melodramatic.
The most interesting scene in the movie is when Millie and Paul duck into a bar that turns out to be a black establishment in Harlem. This really is a take it or leave it proposition, and probably only a must see for Robert Mitchum completists.