Take My Life (1947) User Reviews

Stylish Britnoir gem

[XhcnoirX · 8/10 · 4 January 2017]

Successful opera singer Greta Gynt and her husband Hugh Williams have a marital quarrel over an ex of Williams. Gynt accidentally hurts Williams on his forehead, and he walks out to cool down. At the same time, his ex is strangled by another man, but not before she hits him over the head with a vase, also leaving him with a scar on his forehead. A man spots the killer, and based on items found with the ex linking her to Williams and the man thinking he recognizes Williams due to his scar and overall resemblance, Williams is arrested. Because they're ashamed and not understanding the severity of the situation, both Williams and Gynt initially give conflicting statements about their quarrel, digging a deeper hole for Williams. Gynt has to try and find the real killer before Williams is convicted in a seemingly clear case.

In some ways this movie is nothing special, the story (based on a play) is good but not too surprising. The acting is also solid throughout with the gorgeous Gyn ('Dear Murderer') standing out with a nuanced and great performance. However, the execution is exceptional and this is where this movie impresses. First time director, and former cinematographer, Ronald Neame ('The Poseidon Adventure') plays with the narrative structure by using prosecutor Francis L. Sullivan ('Night And The City') to tell the story in voice over, as he presents his case to the court. As Sullivan reconstructs the murder, using Williams as the killer, the murder is shown, but with the real killer who does resemble Williams, disorienting the viewer. It's a small but clever trick that works, and even brings Hitchcock to mind (as do other scenes, especially in the way tension and suspense is created). His direction is focused while also managing to be playful and interesting. He is also helped tremendously by the excellent cinematography of Guy Green ('Great Expectations', future director of 'Portrait Of Alison', another great Britnoir). There are lots of shadows, stark lights, clever camera positions, but always in service of the movie. Neame and Green manage to turn a good movie into a great and stylish Britnoir/thriller, I was highly impressed by the visual and narrative language they used. A bit of a hidden gem? In any case, highly recommended!

Suspenseful and stylish

[niels-4 · 8/10 · 31 August 2002]

Minor classic ! "Take My life" is one of the better films of its era in British film making. A Rank Film that catched the attention of Hollywood and brought its leading actress Greta Gynt to the film capitol of the world. The merits of "Take My Life" is in its fast paced and skillfully directed hands of Ronald Neame. The feeling of suspense is carefully distributed throughout the film via a dramatic developement that never leavs you unexcited or bored. The actors are controlled and focused. One can tell that the actors enjoyed the challenge of a script that required high acting skills to pull off. And The Rank Studioes gathered their best talents to make the film a minor classic of British film-noire style. "Take my Life" was widly distributed all over the world and is remembered as Greta Gynts best liked film, both by her and her fans. So take a risk with this film if you want to spend an evening (or day) of cinemagic style and suspense. You wont walk off dissapointed if you are lover of vintage films

Greta Gynt takes centre stage

[kidboots · 7/10 · 11 December 2007]

Winston Graham was a great story teller, who was a top writer in all genres. His best known works are the "Poldark" series that were made into an acclaimed television series. Among his books that have been adapted for films - "Marnie" was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock and starred Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren. "The Walking Stick" starred David Hemmings and Samantha Eggar and was a romantic thriller.

"Take My Life" was the first Winston Graham book to be filmed. Additional dialogue was by Winston Graham and Margaret Kennedy (who wrote "The Constant Nymph") so it is a very stylish film.

Greta Gynt, Britain's resident sex symbol of the 40s (even though she was Norwegian) plays a rare sympathetic role. She plays Phillipa, an opera singer giving her first performance in England. She has a volatile marriage to Nicholas (Hugh Williams). During the performance Nicholas sees a girl (Rosalie Crutchley) that he has known in former times and she begs to see him after the show.

By morning the girl has been murdered and by an unfortunate co- incidence, Nicholas has been charged with murder. (He has a quarrel with his wife - they throw things at each other and Nicholas leaves the flat with a gash over his eye. The murderer also has a cut over his eye, where the girl hit him with a lamp when she was being strangled.)

The murderer is revealed early on and there is a game of cat and mouse as Phillipa goes to Scotland, hot on his trail. A piece of music is part of the mystery as well.

I really enjoyed it. British films had their own brand of "film noir" and this is a great example.

Enjoyable 1940s British Suspense

[howardmorley · 7/10 · 9 October 2014]

I love this period of British films where everyone is relentlessly middle class, even the children who say expressions such as "super" & "wizard" and the women all speak with Celia Johnson like cut glass accents.Indeed I read today (Daily Mail 9/10/14) that this is the accent that the British most trust.Well to this 1947 film.For me Marius Goring was the stand out actor playing the headmaster Sidney Fleming.Another of his menacing roles was in "Highly Dangerous"(1950) as a Balkan police inspector with Margaret Lockwood.Francis L. Sullivan was in his element yet again playing a criminal prosecuting barrister (see him in "Great Expectations" (1946).

Sharp eyed viewers may have noticed the uncredited performances of Maurice Denham playing defending counsel and a newsboy at York station played by the future Billy Bunter- (Gerald Campion) on children's 1950s BBC TV.In 1947 all middle class people dressed up to visit the opera/concert/theatre with women in long evening gowns/jewels and the men smartly dressed in dinner suits with bow ties.One of the audience members actually used that theatrical cliché " Darling you were fabulous!" after listening to Greta Gynt (Philippa Shelley) miming to an operatic aria dubbed on by a professional singer.I will say though as an artist that this actress had lovely cheekbones.Huw Williams (father of Simon Williams) in the male lead as the innocent man charged with the strangulation, I always find just adequate.Sorry to damn him with faint praise.Ronald Adam, who often pops up in 1940s films, such as "Green for Danger", played the supposedly deaf detective who became the vital witness Philippa Shelley needed to save her husband.It certainly kept my interest to the end being well scripted and I rated it 7/10.

Greta Gynt races to clear her husband of murder

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 1 November 2021]

I just wish I knew who dubbed Greta Gynt - she had a beautiful voice.

Gynt stars with Hugh Williams, Marius Goriing, and Francis L. Sullivan in "Take My Life," a British noir from 1947.

Williams is Nicholas Talbot, the husband and manager of opera star Phillipa Shelley (Gynt). Opening night of a new opera, an old girlfriend of Nicholas' shows up. Once they are home, Phillipa teases her husband about her; he becomes annoyed, and they start fighting. During the fight, she throws something at him and injures him in the forehead. He leaves.

The next day, the old girlfriend is found dead, and Nicholas matches the description of a man seen leaving her apartment. He is arrested.

Phillipa takes it upon herself to investigate the murder and clear Nicholas.

It's an okay drama; the evidence of the murder is somewhat flimsy. Greta Gynt was very beautiful, and I have enjoyed her films. The prosecuting counselor (Sullivan) brought a lot of life to the film, as a forerunner of Charles Laughton in WItness for the Prosecution.

first Ronald Neame movie

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 7/10 · 28 March 2019]

Intelligent narration by the judge in charge of a murder. And when you arrive at the end, you want to see again the first part to see how smart it was. First movie directed by former cinematographer Ronald Neame who worked on "Great Expectations" as adaptator. Great acting by Greta Gynt as the determined wife of her husband accused of murder but innocent. Ronald Neame was like Guy Green, Jack Cardiff, Freddie Francis, Seth Holt, Terence Fisher, Jimmy Sangster, Michael Carreras and many others : they could work as editor, cinematographer, screenwriter, director, and even actor.

First-rate British Noir Murder Drama

[robert-temple-1 · 9/10 · 14 October 2008]

This is a superb example of a high-calibre British postwar murder mystery. It was the first film ever directed by Ronnie Neame, who is mostly famous for his classics 'Tunes of Glory' (1960) and 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' (1969). The cinematography by Guy Green (later a director) is inspired and intensely expressionist in the German manner. Neame really shows what a brilliant director he was, not only coaxing excellent performances out of his actors, but keeping the pace and the tension despite the fact that the identity of the murderer is revealed very early. Francis L. Sullivan is, as usual, hair-raising as the prosecuting counsel, although his role should have been more prominent if the film had not been so short at only 76 minutes. (One suspects things were cut out before release, as the buildup of Sullivan really does fizzle out without explanation.) The scenes towards the end of the film really do become incredibly menacing and powerful, as Marius Goring, who plays the murderer in an eerie and intense style, can be seen calculating what he must do next, and sets about it with the methodical determination of a man who now has nothing to lose. Hugh Williams is excellent as the rather formal husband of Greta Gynt, an equally formal wife who is an opera star. It is difficult for such people to cope with real situations of danger, as their behaviour is so mannered, even in their most private moments, that quick thinking and quick action are impossibilities for them, what with all the thawing out they have to do first, not to mention the necessity of changing for dinner, straightening the black tie, and making sure every hair is in place. Sometimes when your life is in danger, such formalities can be rather impeding! But that is part of the irony of this tale, of which a subliminal motif is: things like that don't happen to people like us. In this film, the doomed victim is Rosalie Crutchley, who really was a fascinating wench at that early age, in fact, someone to whom you can imagine almost anything could happen, and it does.

Efficient wronged man thriller

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 22 November 2019]

TAKE MY LIFE is a brisk and efficient little 'wronged man' thriller that has much in common with the later Hitchcock movie THE WRONG MAN. This time around, Hugh Williams is the ill-fated protagonist whose connection to the victim and unlucky coincidence of having exactly the same forehead wound as the real murderer sees him sent to trial for murder. The beginning is a little slow and the characters a little stiff, although I always enjoy Marius Goring's villainous turns, typecast as he was. The film gets much more interesting around the halfway mark where Greta Gynt takes over and has to figure out the identity of the murderer herself, leading to a fine little set-piece on a train.

Ronald Neame's eye-catching directorial debut.

[RogerTheMovieManiac88 · 9/10 · 2 August 2013]

As I scrolled down a list of Ronald Neame's movie credits prior to compiling this little review, I was struck again by the unbridled excellence of his filmography. Ebullient successes such as 'Major Barbara' and 'Blithe Spirit' were photographed by him, and he would go on to direct such involving and memorable movies as 'The Man Who Never Was' and 'Gambit'. Having honed his skills behind the camera while working with the cream of British movie-making talent, Neame made the transition to the director's chair in 1947 with 'Take My Life'.

And what a brilliant first-up effort it proves to be! This fast-paced and deftly-directed thriller sees Greta Gynt travelling to Scotland in an attempt to clear her husband, Hugh Williams, of the murder of an old flame of his. With Neame directing and Guy Green photographing the movie, it is a real triumph pictorially. As a prestige production of GFD/Cineguild, one would expect the polished feel that is evident. The movie is further elevated, however, by a stylish and imaginative script and uniformly excellent performances. Gynt and Williams offer refreshing sparkle on-screen and imbue their characters with admirable depth. Marius Goring, as the killer, is brooding and calculated and he fills the screen with a sense of foreboding menace. Some of the later suspense-filled scenes in the school call to mind Neame's background in cinematography. Several wonderfully expressionistic scenes are realised as Gynt searches for evidence of the dead girl, and engages in a game of cat-and-mouse with Goring amongst the deserted corridors and rooms of the empty school and then on the train back to England. The sense of moody desperation evoked in the last reel deserves special praise.

This confident and consistently exciting thriller shows what a fantastic film-maker Ronald Neame was. He demonstrates a smooth narrative style and expertly ramps up a thrilling level of suspense, despite the fact that the murderer is known to the audience from an early stage. 'Take My Life' is a movie that I wholeheartedly recommend.

Charlie Chan had an easier opera murder to solve than this one!

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 15 January 2020]

This thrilling British mystery is more than just about murder. It's about the mysterious life of the victim, a young musician (Rosalie Crutchley) whose affair with a married man leaves a trail of victims and suspects than just the murdered woman herself. It is instantly intriguing through the dramatic narration of Francis Sullivan, a barrister of incredible intelligence and craftiness.

With a rather gory explanation of how the murder was committed, it's obvious that a case like this would gain a lot of attention. Hugh Williams as the accused is obviously guilty of something, but is it enough to require the death penalty? His wife (Greta Gynt) is a popular opera star and is the heiress to the estate he manages so there's questions as to his morality and his motivations, but she's completely devoted to clearing him, traveling all over to dig up as much information as she can get, especially from the victim's estranged mother. That adds intrigue to the mystery because pretty much anything can happen.

This reaches the height of tension when ... Goes out of town to find information from a school that... attended bringing a subtle bit of Hitchcockian like horror as she is stalked and finds issues proving that Crutchley went to that school. Superb photography and editing add to the tension with sinister performances and a graphic denouncement, a great film twist I did not see coming. This is a terrific find for an obscure British thriller that is smart, intriguing and exciting from start to finish.

Good noir touches

[lucyrfisher · 8/10 · 28 March 2020]

Especially in the second half, when Philippa the somewhat spoiled and beautiful opera singer goes on the trail of a murderer.

Her husband is on trial for killing a former girlfriend (the magnificent Rosalie Crutchley), and with Francis L Sullivan as the prosecutor, his chances look slim. He (Hugo Williams) tries to keep up his spirits, but underneath a light manner he is desperately worried.

So Philippa sets off to follow a musical clue, wearing the kind of hat the royal family are fond of (in her case, it protects her 40s pompadour hairstyle). It leads her to a sinister gothic school in the far north, where she is shown round by Marius Goring.

There are lots of good scenes in trains and railway stations, filmed on location. When they pull into York, we fleetingly see a traveller who looks uncannily like the murdered girl. But when we recognise one of the fellow-passengers as stalwart actor Ronald Adam, we are prepared for more drama...

I'd love to read the original book by Winston Graham. Writers of historical sagas (Poldark) often do their best work when young and writing about the contemporary scene.

It's a shame that Sullivan fades out of the story early, and Philippa's modern opera seems to consist of one scene. Obviously her singing voice is dubbed, but what about her speaking voice? It is very unlike the sarcastic, seductively nasal tones of her performance in Dear Murderer. Perhaps she just adopted a different voice for this character who, though flawed, is basically a good egg.

"Who knows what a murderer should look like"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 7/10 · 4 May 2019]

The directorial debut of Ronald Neame and a good one too, as he enhances a typical story of a man falsely accused of murder with perfect pace and growing tension, The cinematography of Guy Green and the music score of Wiliam Alwyn also add to the suspense. The plot itself moves along but the ending is not the best as questions must be asked about the policeman on the train, Why was he there? Why pretend to be deaf as he couldn't know anything about the situation? Etc.

Hugh Williams as the accused man is dull but Greta Gynt as the determined wife, Marius Goring as the volatile head master and Rosalie Crutchley as the violinist are all excellent. Familiar and able character actors pop up now and then to increase interest,

The identity of the killer is revealed early in the film but this works because the driver to the story is how he and the crime can be linked. An entertaining film from Ronald Neame at the start of his director's career and there was even better to come..

Melodrama with some nice touches (spoiler)

[lucy-66 · 3 April 2002]

Made in that wartime and post-war black and white era when British movies at least looked good, employed fine character actors and dressed the cast glamorously. Greta Gynt may not be the world's greatest actress but she makes the most of her deadpan, slightly skewed beauty and nasal, refined voice. (Was English her first language?)

She convinces least as the star of a ghastly modern opera (music by William Alwyn) in this tale of a man wrongly accused of murder.

There's not much suspense. We know from the start that Marius Goring dunnit. And it's always good to see Rosalie Crutchley, who was quite a dish in her day. xxxx

Take my life for what it's worth

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 21 March 2017]

****SPOILERS**** Based on the forgettable Winston Graham novel by the same name the movie has to do with the murder of violinist Elizabeth Rusman, Rosalie Cuuchley, who's body was found burned to a crisp to conceal her identity from the police by her murdered. The man arrested for Rusman's murder just happened to be the husband of the opera singer Philippa Shelly, Greta Gynt, who was back up ,in playing the violin, in the Oprah that she was playing in Nick Talbot, Hugh Williams. After Philippa accused Nick of making eyes at Rusman they later had a spat where she hit him over the head with a hair brush causing a deep gash in his skull. Not being or willing to explain the injury to the police to avoid embarrassment and being in the present with Rusman just before she was found murdered Nick is arrested and made to stand trial for her death.

We have Nick's wife Philippa now checking out all the clues to Rusman's murder that leads her to the private music school in the boondocks that it's suspected Rushman spend the year before as a music teacher. With the principle of the school Sidney Flemming, Marius Goring, not that cooperative Philippa finds the missing photo-Of Rusman- of the year before graduation class that he hid from her. That turned out the piece of evidence that can connect him not only with Rusman as man and wife but the reason behind her murder.

***MAJOR SPOILERS**** With Rusman's killer's identity, as her husband Sidney Felmming, exposed he attempts to throw Philippa off a speeding train, on her way back to London, but he's interrupted briefly by this deft man looking for the bathroom or "John" to relive himself who "herd" his confession to Philippa about doing his unfaithful wife Rusman in. That's because her divorcing him would ruin his career in both politics as well as the world of music. It turns out that Flemming now seeing the writing on the wall jumped off the train to his death before the police could arrest him. But it also had Philippa who was with him at the time of him jumping or being pushed off the speeding train in hot water by being arrested for his murder. That's until the deft man turned out to be the not so deft undercover Det. Sgt. Hawkins, Roland Adams, who's testimony totally exonerated Philippa of Flemmings murder!

Not a good idea to hook up with an ex

[AAdaSC · 7/10 · 13 August 2017]

.especially if you are married to someone else! What on earth was rich layabout Hugh Williams (Nick) thinking? I say layabout but he's actually the manager of his talented operatic singer wife Greta Gynt (Phillipa). She's the one with the talent, so, yep, he's probably a layabout feeding off her success. Anyway, his ex is violin player Rosalie Crutchley (Liz) and she ends up dead which is bad news for layabout boy. He's in the dock for murder and heading for the afterlife courtesy of the death penalty. Cue sharp-witted Greta to go out and prove his innocence.

This film travels along at a good pace and is basically a thriller. The mystery element is taken away near the beginning of the film as the killer is revealed. This doesn't matter and takes nothing away from the enjoyment of the film as Gynt goes after the truth and puts herself in danger. Real danger!

The film starts with an interesting voice-over from lawyer Frances L. Sullivan as he puts his case forward for the prosecution in court. Just sit back and let the film carry you along. There are some light touches thrown in along with moments of suspense. The shop-keeper and his opening times is quite amusing – don't open till 9:00 am – ha ha. The film is nothing special but it is enjoyable as you watch it.

Quite good...but the ending could have been better.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 23 February 2017]

If you are watching a mystery or suspense film, the most important element is the finale--the portion where you learn the truth. Unfortunately, the picture falls apart a bit there...just a bit.

When the film begins, a man's old girlfriend shows up years later. By now, he's married and his wife is not exactly thrilled he was talking to this lady. But the husband was innocent of anything...just saying hello to a woman who called to him. Later, at home, the wife continues to pester him about the lady...good-naturedly at first. But when it turns into a nasty row, he leaves. Soon, the husband is getting a head wound sewn up--from the object the wife threw at him during the argument! But his troubles have only just begun, however, as the woman he was talking to at the beginning of the film is dead. Someone murdered her and all the circumstantial evidence points to him! So, it's up to the wife to track down some leads...perhaps she can shed light on what really happened. Unfortunately, she might also find the real murderer...and then what's she to do?!

The film was very good and taut. My only problem is that during the big confrontation scene on the train at the end, the woman NEVER yelled for help and knew her life was in danger. Now I have heard British folks are quite polite...but no one is THAT polite! Still, a snappy little film and one worth seeing. Just a shame the end wasn't written a bit more tightly.

Take My Life, Please.,

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 27 June 2015]

Near the opening, Hugh Williams' wife, Greta Gynt, in a fit of jealousy, throws an item from her dressing table at him and it glances off his forehead. I was shocked. I'd always thought that the Brits, so skilled in the conversational arts, left those sorts of physical rows to us Americans.

I recall such an exchange with my own wife. It was Hallowe'en night and she was dressed in a tiger costume and a plastic Mickey Mouse mask. I'd been baking and began throwing paper-thin cupcake tins at her. She danced from side to side, evading every one. I stopped when I realized what the scene would look like to an outsider: A man in an apron hurling tin cups at someone in a tiger outfit wearing an immutable Mickey Mouse grin. If I hadn't been disabled by laughter I would have tried strangling her, as Hugh Williams strangles the next woman, an ex lover, he has an encounter with.

At least that's what he's accused of by Francis X. Sullivan, representing the Crown. Sullivan's booming narration talks us through the prosecution's view of events. The booming baritone is illustrated by multiple flashbacks, all of which make Williams look guilty as hell. All except one, which reveals the murderer to be a man we've never met. Sullivan's hypothetical scenario is interrupted from time to time to show us the rounds of the real killer. He has evidently been told never to blink.

The victim, by the way, William's ex lover, is Rosalie Crutchley whose features and dark eyes are both striking and attractive. She was the arid housekeeper in "The Haunting." Williams' wife, Greta Gynt, is horribly upset that her husband is in the Crowbar Hotel and they're dusting off the gallows for him. She helps by following every possible link, and one of them improbably leads her to the murderer. The pace of the story picked up markedly. One of the relay points is the shop of a devoutly Presbyterian photographer in Edinburgh and it's rather funny. Nice to have a light spot in a drama like this. The climax is again violent, recalling Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt."

In any case, not to worry. Near the beginning, when Crutchley writes a note to Williams, it's used as evidence against him in court. "Alas, the love of women! it is known To be a lovely and a fearful thing." The trouble begins with Lord Byron, then, but it also ends with Williams and Gynt together again, as if they'd never been apart. "I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all." A snappy and suspenseful thriller. I enjoyed it.

If You Like Hitchcock, You'll Enjoy This

[jadedalex · 8/10 · 21 December 2015]

I found this a very quick-paced thriller. Neame's camera work found fresh ways to do clichéd scenes. So many movies are described as 'Hitchcockian', but rarely deliver the Master's unique touch. I don't find Neame's work here a ripoff of Hitch's genre, but rather an homage to the great director.

Like Sir Alfred, Neame has the wrong man accused of murder. In fact, male lead Hugh Williams is quite ineffectual at any sort of defense, since the movie opens with him on trial for murder and quickly found guilty. That the fine British character actor Francis L. Sullivan is given such a short role as prosecuting attorney is fine with me. He is cleverly used to state his case against the defendant, leading into flashbacks of the drama as it really happened.

This leaves the lovely Greta Gynt to portray opera star and first class detective. Yet another Hitchcock theme is revealed as the cops and the justice system yet again fail an innocent man. It's up to Ms. Gynt to sort out the clues that lead to the real killer.

The train sequences definitely reminded me of Hitchcock's 'The Lady Vanishes', and there is a plot twist near the end which is quite delicious.

I suggest that previous reviewers who found nothing interesting in this movie must have been half asleep during their viewing. I was riveted by Neame's work with the camera, and it's definitely a movie worth a second look.

Williams as the male lead is fairly useless, a handsome man who could easily be taken as a ne'er do well living off his wife's successful operatic career. So it is up to the strong performance of Gynt's character to drive the story to its compelling end.

This movie has been described as 'film noir', but I see it as more of a 'thriller'. And like the best of Hitchcock's suspense films, this one delivers.

Bog standard British mystery

[bob the moo · 1 April 2002]

Nicholas Talbot is the husband and manager of wealthy opera singer Phillipa Shelley. Tensions in the marriage are raised when Nicholas meets Elizabeth, an old flame, after a show. Hours later Elizabeth is killed at her flat with Nicholas not having an alibi. On trial for murder he looks to be heading for certain imprisonment – but Phillipa starts following her own clues in an attempt to uncover the truth.

I didn't have a clue what this was about until I watched it – so I had no preconceptions about it. It seemed to start well enough as the stall was laid out and clues were shown. However it quickly became dull and only really got better when the wife started looking for clues herself. However the thing that actually helps her find the real killer is such an absurd plot twist that it's more silly than anything else. The final 10 minutes are good but can't make this anything more than a dull mystery.

The cast are quite good but don't really have any character. I thought the fat lawyer character would play a bigger role and potentially have character a la Charles Laughton in Witness for the Prosecution, however he didn't. Similarly the accused and his wife are quite cardboard.

Overall it's not terrible but it has nothing whatsoever that will stay in your memory. Not really worth watching.

I don't believe it.

[flash-104 · 6/10 · 3 March 2017]

I agree with most of the other reviewers on how stylishly this film is acted and directed. But the (predictable spoiler warning) misleading coincidences leading to the false accusation are too unlikely to be believable; I'm afraid the protagonist must have been guilty. And the further coincidences leading to the supposed bad guy are so implausible, and the obstacles facing the intrepid but dim heroine so preposterously handled, that suspension of belief is impossible.

This is a film worth your time.....

[mch2469 · 9/10 · 15 February 2021]

It's a great film with great performances.... as so many reviewers here express that same sentiment so much more eloquently than I ever could....! The poorer reviews are critical in areas that only time has given them the benefit of.... 'Even' as a black and white movie there is a wonderful atmosphere that a color version could never hope to meet let alone exceed..!

If you tend to enjoy good entertainment with no pre-conceived expectations then this film will most certainly deliver.....

I sometimes wish that this fantastic app and website would also list a few of the more contemporary reviews so as to provide a sense of the film's context to ordinary film goers.... but even with that option, unfortunately, there would be very few that people might have written let alone shared....!

Take My Life

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 8 January 2023]

Hugh Williams and Greta Gynt are super as the couple trying to prove that he didn't murder an old flame at her London lodgings. He is convicted largely due to a formidable prosecution from a suitably ebullient Francis L. Sullivan but she determines to find out what really happened. The odd thing is that there are no photographs of the victim; it's as if she had no recent past... Then serendipity takes a hand and Gynt happens upon a tune that takes her to Edinburgh and soon she is on the trail to the truth. Ronald Neame's first go from the director's chair and it's a suspenseful, taut film noir well worth catching up with.

An opera diva gets mixed up with her husband in a murder mystery of extreme cruelty

[clanciai · 10/10 · 16 March 2017]

Brilliant thriller with a musical touch to it, the key to the solution being a tiny melody putting the primadonna Greta Gynt on the track. This to me unknown actress dominates the film with a vengeance, never giving up on her lonely and heroic quest to clear her husband, wrongly accused of murder because of unfortunate circumstances speaking against him. The other great female part is Rosalie Crutchley, here very young but already deeply fascinating with her demonic suavity. Francis Sullivan is domineering as usual as the prosecutor and as perfectly objective as the lawyer Jaggers in "Great Expectations" the previous year, but the most interesting part is Marius Goring. He always makes overly intelligent parts risking to run amuck, but here you get closer to his hidden menace than ever. It was Ronald Neame's debut as a director, and it matches more than well any sustained thriller by Hitchcock or Anthony Asquith. It's brilliantly written, flattering the audience by always letting them know more than the actors, and the finale is a cliffhanger with a surprise to it. It was a long time since you last saw such a clever thriller.

Well-done

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 7 January 2024]

"Take My Life" (1947) initially promises to be more unusual than it is, even challenging us to wonder if we can believe our own eyes (and ears): we are shown evenets that may or may not have taken place this way. It becomes more conventional once the killer is revealed, which happens early, but is still done professionally on a medium budget, with even a few inventive directorial moments (mostly involving mirrors). It all leads to a tense climax aboard a train, and a nice surprise at the end. Well-acted too, with Rosalie Crutchley managing to create a memorable character in just two scenes in total. **1/2 out of 4.

Full of contrivance and flaws

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 23 May 2019]

The film starts off well but then heads off in another direction alas.The problems are manifold,there are flaws in the depiction of the police procedures in relation to collection of forensic evidence.Class in the court scenes where Counsel is allowed to proceed with questions that would never be allowed.Finally the club.as is so silly as to destroy any credibility the film may have built up.I