The Man in the Net (1959) User Reviews

Late Ladd thriller tries hard, but can't overcome false steps and implausibility

[bmacv · 6/10 · 1 October 2003]

With both its star Alan Ladd and its director Michael Curtiz nearing the end of their careers, The Man in the Net has a valedictory feel that surely wasn't intended. Ladd looks puffy and seems bored by issues that are literally vital to him (and his sprints through the woods look labored and abbreviated). Behind the camera, Curtiz fares a bit better; the old pro (Casablanca, Mildred Pierce) knows how to shape a story and sustain tension, but he didn't bother to plaster over the cracks in the far-fetched screenplay by Reginald Rose.

Ladd plays a commercial artist who has moved to rural Connecticut to pursue his dream of becoming a serious painter; another reason for leaving New York's `rat race' was the gin-fueled nervous breakdown of his wife (Carolyn Jones). She still chafes under their genteel poverty when she knows he could make big bucks by returning to his old job. She takes her revenge in a clandestine affair (all the while trying to look and act like Bette Davis as Rosa Moline in Beyond The Forest).

When Ladd takes a commuter train into the city to turn down the job and incidentally to visit her psychiatrist (isn't it customary for the patient to go?), he returns to find all his paintings slashed and a typewritten note telling him she's left for good. But then a suitcase full of her clothes is found burning at the local dump, and other evidence points to foul play. The townspeople, who range from rural bumpkins to the country gentry, jump to the conclusion that the aloof Ladd murdered Jones. They profess shock at Ladd's revelation that she was a drinker, even though she has already staged a drunken scene at a big party where the hosts know her well enough to have a `special tomato juice' waiting for her.

Then we're asked to buy the spectacle of this Connecticut town, in 1959, turning into a Balkan village, with a lynch mob gathered in pursuit of a short, middle-aged white male. Luckily for Ladd, he's forged bonds of trust with a bevy of children whom he's forever sketching in the bosky glades (this seems a stretch, as he appears as stiff and uncomfortable being with them as they do being in front of a camera). They hide him in a surprisingly spacious and well-appointed cave they use as their clubhouse, and, at his bidding, undertake a series of ruses to smoke out the real killer. There's enough going on in Man in the Net to keep you watching, including Charles McGraw as a surly sheriff, but it's not fresh enough to make you suspend your considerable disbelief.

Not great, but far better than the average Alan Ladd film of the time

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 11 March 2007]

While this was a far cry from Alan Ladd's best films (such as THIS GUN FOR HIRE and THE GLASS KEY), it is better than most of the films Ladd was making towards the tail end of his career. By this point, most of his performances lacked energy or any sort of spark--partly due to poorer scripts and partly due to Ladd's advancing addiction. Ironically, a major plot element of this movie is Ladd's wife's alcoholism! Carolyn Jones (yes, that's Morticia from the Addams Family) plays the exceptionally flaky wife who is both chemically dependent and appears to have many features of a Borderline Personaliy--a personality that craves excitement, addiction and self-destruction. Psychologically speaking, this makes the movie very exciting to therapists, though the average person might think that she overplayed her part--though she captured the volatility of these types of individuals well and Borderline Personalities ARE seemingly impossible to believe due to their shallowness and volatility.

It's obvious that Ladd can't stand his wife, but he stays with her because he married her and he tries to be a good husband. His wife, on the other hand, has little commitment to him and eventually her wicked and dangerous ways result in her murder. Unfortunately, Ladd is blamed, as few know her for what she really is--as Ladd protected her and hid her escapades from everyone else. Unfortunately, he did such a great job that EVERYONE thinks he's the murderer and he spends most of the film trying to prove his innocence and avoid a lynch mob! His assistants in this endeavor are local kids who like him and can't believe he'd hurt his wife. This is a stretch to believe, but it does create some interesting story elements. Overall, the film is pretty exciting and different and well worth a look--particularly if you are a fan of Alan Ladd.

Alan Ladd sleepwalks through one of his last roles...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 9 March 2007]

There's a nice New England feel in the Connecticut opening scenes of THE MAN IN THE NET and director Michael Curtiz makes striking visual use of the B&W camera in artfully photographing a country farmhouse with its rustic interiors full of paintings supposedly done by local artist ALAN LADD.

Ladd's wife, CAROLYN JONES, doesn't share his passion for the arts, staging quite a scene with neighbors when she breaks into a birthday party with a shiner and accuses her husband of mistreating her during one of their arguments. It provides a nice set-up for someone to eventually murder her, making Ladd look like the main suspect.

Alan Ladd, only 46 at the time, seems almost lifeless and delivers a completely stiff performance that has him befriending neighborhood kids in such a fashion that they become willing to help him avoid detection when the villagers turn on him. This aspect of the story simply rings false, as does the rest of the plot which is too pat and contrived to seem plausible. The children are not exactly adept at delivering most of their lines.

DIANE FOSTER does a nice job as a decent neighborhood woman who helps Ladd prove his innocence and CHARLES McGRAW, JOHN LUPTON and TOM HELMORE are fine as other suspects in the supporting cast.

But for a man accused of a crime he didn't commit, Ladd has all the facial animation of a department store mannequin.

Trivia note: The bit about the slashed paintings reminds me of the Ronald Colman/Ida Lupino flick THE LIGHT THAT FAILED, but Jones' emoting in the party scene is on the level of Bette Davis at her histrionic overkill.

Part of this are completely terrific, but then there is Alan Ladd...

[secondtake · 7/10 · 12 January 2011]

The Man in the Net (1959)

What a great movie with a flawed Alan Ladd bringing it down. This is toward the end of his career, and he plays his part, of a man falsely accused of a crime, with such deadpan reluctance, you think he's being forced to act. We do feel for him because the plot is so clear about the facts, but we can't really get emotionally involved. The movie around him a late 50s modernity mixed with old school Hollywood pace and mise-en-scene, thanks to veteran director Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca" and "Mildred Pierce").

The real star is the almost unknown Carolyn Jones--almost unknown, except as Morticia in The Addams Family (mid-60 television, for the uninitiated). She played a number of important secondary roles films of the 1950s, but also had a t.v. career, and who know why she never quite made it. But, she shows up here right away and is astonishing, like a young Bette Davis, even with the same wide eyes and snappy mannerisms. She plays Ladd's wife, and at first she seems merely feisty. Then you realize she's a live wire inside, and possibly drinking too much. And then it cracks open from there, and Jones makes the character cunning and yet also weirdly enchanting.

The other fascinating turn to the storytelling is the role children play in it all (a little ironic given that the movie promotions say loudly: not appropriate for children). At first the group of five kids, all under 10, are part of the innocence of this little Connecticut town far from the ravages of New York. Then a lot of adult stuff happens, the good stuff really, the stuff that Curtiz has the best feel for. Then the children reappear, and it almost becomes a two layer movie, with the children keeping a kind of fairy tale element to what is a very very horrible situation. In fact, as the townspeople become more and more childish (and cruel), the kids become reasonable and mature.

But then there is Ladd. Even reviewers at the time (when Ladd was still riding his star power) remarked that he was all wood and clay (or as Richard Neson said in 1959, Ladd "mutes his personality to the point of unreality"). Even physically he seems a bit awkward, making me think he was getting old, even though he needed to be in his 30s or 40s for the part and was only 45 at the time of shooting.

So, this is an odd beast of a film, but a truly interesting one. Even the story has a quirky genesis--the author being listed as Patrick Quentin, which was a pen name for a group of four writers who pounded out popular detective fiction. Certainly anything by Curtiz is worth a look, and the direction, per se, is actually first rate, if we can overlook his handling of his lead male. And the cinematographer is the wonderful John Seitz,which helps with a lot of the scenes (the cave scenes, the party). The movie almost has the potential to be a cult classic, like "Night of the Hunter," but Ladd never was as commanding as Robert Mitchum, was he?

Painter runs afoul of the law

[helpless_dancer · 7/10 · 10 October 1999]

Good drama about a man chased by hot headed vigilantes and the police for a crime he claims to be innocent of. Along the way he is aided by a group of kids who believe in his innocence. Very exciting show with a satisfying ending.

Mediocre, one of Ladd's last films

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 4 September 2009]

Like a lot of classic film stars, Alan Ladd's career ended on a low rather than a high note, and one of his last films, 1959's Man in the Net, is a good example of this. It was also one of the last films for director Michael Curtiz who directed such classics as "Casablanca." It's a poor effort from such an accomplished man.

Ladd plays an artist who has left the pressure of NYC and his full time job in order to paint. He spends most of his time in the woods, painting, while a group of local kids play nearby and talk with him. His major problem isn't the brushes and colors, though, it's his wife (Carolyn Jones), an alcoholic who wants to return to the social atmosphere that helped her drinking along in the first place. Here in the boondocks, she's hooked up with the ritzy set, to Ladd's displeasure.

When he returns from a business trip to New York City, his wife is missing, there is blood on his painting clothes, his paintings have been destroyed, and everybody thinks he's responsible. With the help of the children he has befriended, he eludes the police and is able to get the proof he needs to exonerate himself.

With a tighter script and someone other than Ladd, this might have been a decent movie. The kids are adorable, and that angle of the script plays out nicely. Ladd, unfortunately, sleepwalks through the role and at times, actually looks like a blind man. I tried to figure out why, and I think it's just because he's literally staring into space instead of focusing on something. There was never anything spectacular about Ladd's acting - what he had was a presence, a toughness, and good looks. These are all gone, and in their place is a puffy, heavy-lidded, slow man.

In contrast, the striking Carolyn Jones is full of energy in her role. With her signature short haircut and Bette Davis eyes, Jones was an edgy actress who left us too soon. She was very good at playing neurotic party girls and straying wives, though she's remembered today as Morticia on "The Addams Family" TV show.

All in all, "The Man in the Net" plays like a television drama, with the suburbanites going after Ladd like they all live in the wild west. Someone commented that today he would be suspicious for hanging out with children, and that aspect dates the film as well. It's a shame, because the nicest aspect of the movie was the way the kids rallied around him and helped him.

If you loved Ladd in "This Gun for Hire," "The Glass Key," "The Blue Dahlia," and "Shane," skip this. You don't need to see a fallen star.

Classic Alan Ladd Film

[whpratt1 · 6/10 · 17 August 2007]

Alan Ladd, (John Hamilton) plays the role of an artist who decides to leave New York and the rat race mainly because his wife likes to drink and is getting out of control where she has to see a doctor for help. Carolyn Jones, (Linda Hamilton) plays John's wife and lives in a very quiet town in New England where John paints pictures of children all day and never seems to sell a picture. One day John receives a letter offering him a job in New York City with an Art Firm for $30,000 dollars but refuses to take this position because of his wife's chemical dependency. Linda goes into a rage and starts drinking and goes completely out of control. In real life, Alan Ladd is really doing all the boozing and you can see it in the close up's of his face and eyes are puffy. The children in this picture take complete control over the entire film and gave great supporting roles in trying to hid and help John Hamilton from the police.

Lynch Law In The 'Burbs

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 9 March 2007]

Alan Ladd gives up the city life and rat race for himself and also for dipsomaniac and nymphomaniac wife Carolyn Jones. They move out to quiet and peaceful Connecticut. Where Ladd paints out in the woods with his only true friends the town children. Jones on the other hand gets an affair going with one of the town movers and shakers.

Jones winds up very dead when Ladd makes an overnight trip to New York. Local cop Charles McGraw thinks Ladd did it as does most of the town, his only friends are the children and Diane Brewster, one of the suburban wives.

Alfred Hitchcock might have made the rest of this film seem plausible. In fact Man in the Net plays like an expanded version of one of his half hour TV stories.

There are some plot similarities to The Blue Dahlia made back during Ladd's Paramount hey day. In that one he's also a husband on the run after his wife has been killed. Back then though Ladd put a lot of passion into his role of John Morrison, returning war veteran. As John Hamilton though he seems just tired and bored.

One thing that doesn't ring true is the lynch law mentality that takes over this suburban town. That plays more like a western than a modern story. Again, maybe Alfred Hitchcock could have made it more believable.

It's kind of cute and fun to see the kids outsmart the grownups including the local law for a good deal of the film. But it only goes so far for Man in the Net.

The greatest game we 've ever played !

[ulicknormanowen · 6/10 · 7 August 2020]

In "the proud rebel" , Alan Ladd played opposite a child,his own son ; in the very first sequence,he is surrounded by a bunch of kids who do not think his drawings are "dirty "; this sequence is rather long and may seem boring and soppy ;but it's vital .Hadn't the artist been good friends with the children of the neighbourhood, he would have been perhaps lynched by the populace -although it's a bit exagerated , his wife being not so popular in the vicinity.

The murder mystery is quite trite ,with the cardboard character of the alcoholical hysterical wife (Carolyn Jones ) ,and the trap the fugitive uses to clear himself of the accusation somewhat far-fetched .

The film's main interest lies in the children's intervention ,the last bastion against the maddening crowd ; for them ,it's the greatest game they have ever played ,and to hide the fugitive in their own "den" is extremely exciting ;their relationship with the wrong man makes up for the paucity of the detective story.

Script without a Net

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 13 August 2007]

After seeing the excellent "13 West Street" (1962), with Alan Ladd, I had high hopes for "The Man in the Net". Another B&W film from his later years might be similar, I thought. I was very disappointed. This movie had, I thought, MORE going in: like, famed Director Michael Curtiz, and co-star Carolyn Jones. They were not at their best.

As others have noticed, Ms. Jones does a totally-out-of-the-blue Bette Davis impression. I would have spotted her as a boozy floozy right off the bat, but even her BEST friend has no clue??? Mr. Ladd, great in "13 West Street" and one of the only things worth watching in "The Carpetbaggers"(1964), is not very good. The story is very weak. How is it that all the townspeople are stupid and their children so smart? Despite the weakness of the premise, there are some interestingly played scenes; the film does have a structure, which is easy and somewhat satisfying to follow, despite the implausibility.

**** The Man in the Net (1959) Michael Curtiz ~ Alan Ladd, Carolyn Jones, Diane Brewster

The Man in the Net Review

[pensman · 8/10 · 31 August 2014]

The estates of Reginald Rose and Hugh Wheeler should be looking at Gillian Flynn's novel and ask how much of this this film influenced her novel. We have a neurotic somewhat psychotic wife, Carolyn Jones here channeling Bette Davis, upset and angry with her husband because he refuses to return to New York. She makes a scene at a party implying her husband is a wife beater. Once the stage is set incidents make it appear her husband killed her. The big difference is the band of local children who believe John, Alan Ladd, is innocent and join forces to protect him and help prove he is innocent and if his wife is dead then there must be another killer. And yes, in this film she really was killed. What I find most amusing about the film is its being set in a mythical town in CT that seems a lot like Westport in the 1950's except for the townspeople who have a lynch mentality and don't want to hear the facts that would clear John. But who really did it--yes she was was really killed--her lover or the local sheriff or was it someone else. The ending is a bit of a surprise but all ends well; almost too well.

Intense and suspenseful Alan Ladd drama.

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 15 June 2015]

This movie is directed by the acclaimed Michael Curtiz. THE MAN in the NET is a suspense driven drama starring Alan Ladd as John Hamilton, an accomplished commercial artist that leaves the hustle and bustle of New York and relocates in a small community in Connecticut. His wife Linda(Carolyn Jones)is not so happy with this move. He has concerns about her alcoholism, but she misses the night life and her social functions, along with John's salary potential.

At a party, a drunken Linda claims that her husband is a wife beater to try and spoil her husband's reputation. When John is tricked into going back to New York for a job interview, he returns finding his wife gone. The local police finds her luggage near a garbage dump and immediately John is suspected of killing his wife.

Rounding out the cast: Diane Brewster, John Lupton, Tom Helmore and Charles McGraw.

Shane is a murderer! Or IS he?

[Handlinghandel · 5/10 · 24 May 2007]

And he's a painter, too. Or IS he? Yikes, this movie has some of the worst art ostensibly painted by an underrated but talented artist ever seen in movies! Ladd gives a dispirited performance. We have a long history with him. So we like his character and wish the best outcome for the trouble he gets in. But LLadd seems to be walking through it.

Carolyn Jones is pretty good as his alcoholic wife. She was capable of better. She had an odd look that Hollywood didn't seem to know how to use. (Well, not till "The Addams Family." And it's a shame that's what she's remembered for.) Around this time several movies about adults' friendships with precious children came out. This is one of them. It was probably viewed as charming at the time -- sort of like a man's friendship with dogs or kindness to his own children or to orphans.

Today, for better or for worse, a man who spent much of his time with preteen children would be highly suspicious to his neighbors. In the movie, Ladd's character is hounded by the townspeople for possibly having killed Jones. Today he wouldn't have lasted that long in a suburban area like this, hanging around with children.

Sad Alan Ladd

[angelsunchained · 7/10 · 24 August 2018]

I am a fan of Alan Ladd and did find this film entertaining, but it was really second rate to say the least. Ladd looked stiff and unhappy the entire film. Miss Jones steals the show and is in her prime. However, she does over play het role and starts to give the viewer a headache listening to her hysterics. All the actors stand around with their hands at their sides and at attention; this takes away a lot from their performances. Fair film, but if you are a fan of Alan Ladd, you should find it at least entertaining.

Good Hubby prevails in Elfland

[Chrid-909 · 6/10 · 14 November 2020]

This film starts - and ends - outdoors, with meek and mild artist and 'good husband', John Hamilton (Alan Ladd) sketching away. A bunch of friendly local scamps cluster around him, although the stiff and puffy Ladd doesn't seem to actually have an easy rapport with them.

Returning home he finds 'ogre', local sheriff Garretty, with his feet up on the table. Garretty starts belittling John as soon as he enters the room. He's waiting for John's wife Linda to come downstairs. When she does, the movie immediately kicks up a gear. Linda (Carolyn Jones) is alcoholic, unfaithful, vindictive and lying - she has no scruples about presenting an accidental bruise to a party of moneyed locals as being evidence that hubby is a wife-beater. Hubby, being stoic and self-effacing, says nothing to deny it.

Tired of the rustic scene and longing to return to the bright lights of the big city, Linda puts her energy into trying to persuade John that he is not a real artist and that he should take the art-teacher job offer - with guaranteed high wage - that she has brought about through her feminine wiles. Yes, Linda is 'bad wife' but she's still the most attractive and interesting character in the film. Pity then that she gets killed off pretty quickly and poor old John, returning from his visit to New York (where he's turned down the jobb offer) finds Linda missing and the community suspicious.

The film now presents us with a doubt-inducing scene where John finds a bill for cement, rings the supplier to query it and is told that he, Mr Hamilton, did indeed ring in the order some days ago. Going to the woodshed he finds fresh cementwork under a pile of logs. Hmm... is this film taking a dark turn; is he a split-personality, one persona being capable of murder while the other has no memory of the deed?

But no, the film doesn't go down that road. Instead it goes down a patently fairy tale road where John, due to the sudden arrival of a Connecticut version of a western lynch mob, has to make a run for it and is rescued in the woods by small but resourceful Emily who literally takes him by the hand and leads him to a secret cave, which is presided over by another little girl, who is called Angel!

The woods are scoured by cops and posse but the cave must be magical because none of those locals know about it! Here John can hide out in relative ease (the pursuers thankfully having no tracker dogs) plotting meanwhile to find out who really did murder Linda and employing his elfin helpers in various ways to enable him to visit the house and find Linda's stuff and using his magical skills to engineer a trap to flush out the murderer and culminating - Columbo-style - in a complicated showdown involving a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

If it wasn't that the adults talk openly in front of the kids about Linda's murder and even carry out the (blanket-covered) corpse in front of them, one might be forgiven for mistaking this for a Hayley Mills-type Disney adventure!

The murderer turns out to be, somewhat unexpectedly, not obvious villain - older bossy British guy - but prince-like younger heart-throbby guy. With 'bad wife' dead and removed from woodshed, and 'bad husband' magically wafted away (prison/execution?) 'good wife' can now unite with 'good hubby' and enjoy a true fairy tale happy ending, featuring good hubby painting, good wife supplying, not only lunch to elfin helpers but newspaper article to hubby, showing that he has also won crock of gold, that is, the praise and recognition of the art world. Cue to scamps, now many more of them, happily whooping and playing - The End.

"You don't need a husband, you need something to wipe your feet on."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 28 June 2023]

Well, this was just the weirdest movie. I had high hopes during the opening credits with Alan Ladd's name in the cast and Michael Curtiz directing, but the story had just too many oddball elements in it. Like Ladd's character, John Hamilton, hanging out with young kids in the woods while he was painting. That would be a red flag today, although it did seem like the kids flocked to him rather than his encouraging them to hang around. Carolyn Jones looked every bit like Morticia Addams here, maybe it's this role that recommended her for the character in the mid-Sixties TV hit, 'The Addams Family'. Starting out, the plot seemed reasonable enough - an upwardly mobile wife becomes increasingly frustrated when her husband declines a well-paying job in New York City in order to pursue his passion, even though he's so far been unsuccessful at it. This leads to an affair on Carolyn's part, but the clandestine relationship ends in her murder, and all the clues point to her husband as the killer. The town folk of Stoneville, Connecticut wants to believe that John Hamilton is guilty, and what would have been appropriate for an 1880's era Western, they turn into a mob all set to lynch him without any proof and without even a corpse. Until her body is discovered in a shed buried under concrete, conveniently purchased by phone only days earlier under Hamilton's name.

Here's what I don't get - how is it that every kid in the neighborhood knows about the cave in the woods and none of their parents or town elders are aware of it after living there all those years? That didn't make sense to me. Nor did it make sense how Hamilton moved around freely in the neighborhood setting up the trap that would lead to the murderer? And why would the murdered woman 'hide' an incriminating audio tape underneath an outdoor staircase (if she had done it), to flush out the killer? Even crazier - who would ever think a calves liver sandwich with ketchup would be a tasty snack for the old guy hiding in the cave?

I don't know..., this could have been a pretty good murder mystery with a little more thought put into it. Ladd himself looked tired and disinterested most of the time, while Jones was monumentally over the top in her brief time on screen. Even though she had only a minor role, I did enjoy seeing Susan Gordon in the story as the young girl Angel helping Ladd's character. She appeared in one of my all-time favorite Twilight Zone episodes titled 'The Fugitive', which made it almost seem like this flick was directed by her father, Bert Gordon.

The Man in the Net

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 24 July 2023]

I always found Alan Ladd a rather soporific actor and sadly here he isn't any different. He was a successful graphic designer and is now an artist who is down on his luck and his marriage to "Linda" (Carolyn Jones) is looking distinctly rocky. She hankers for her previous life in the big city, has taken to the bottle and is making it clear to all she can tell that he is a brute of an husband. When she leaves a letter on his typewriter saying she has had enough and left, he sets out to find her - only to discover that something far more sinister is afoot. Self-preservation becomes the order of the day, and luckily he has the friendship of some local children who prove very effective at being his eyes and his ears! Can he get to the bottom of things before his neighbours come to the conclusion that he is the culprit of an heinous crime and take the law into their own hands? It's a bit on the slow side at the start and it does take a while to build up any sort of head of steam, but once we are clear of the structure of the mystery it develops well enough. Ladd is proficient, he lacks any spark, but Diane Brewster ("Vickie") adds a little character to what is otherwise a rather flat crime drama. The story has it's moments and maybe a bit less dialogue and a bit more characterisation would have helped it, but it's still fine to watch - you just won't remember it.

Mister Rogers + Peyton Place + Hitchcockian Crazy Woman Movie

[lee-96696 · 5/10 · 21 July 2023]

The story is set in a small Connecticut commuter town. Alan Ladd plays John Hamilton, an advertising art director who recently quit his job in Manhattan and moved to the town with his wife, Linda (Carolyn Jones of 1960s Addams family fame) so that she could relax and recover from a "breakdown" and he could pursue a career as a painter.

Linda, you see, is an alcoholic with what could only be charitably described as a volatile personality, narcissistic in the extreme. She is constantly belittling John, especially his art which in all fairness does look pretty bad (lame prop people I suspect). Think Picasso does velvet painting for Wal-Mart. For some reason she wears her hair in a 1920s-style page-boy do as if she's headed to a Great Gatsby party.

John is a sad, low-energy, doormat beta male. He's attending a party of the town's elite when wifey barges in with a black eye - she took a drunken tumble on the way over - and accuses him of once again hitting her in one of his allegged rages. He does not in any way defend himself against the slander.

In most scenes he walks about like he has some kind of disability, or weight on his shoulders, and his running is oddly feminine. In the movie he looks about 62, but Ladd was actually in his mid-40s at the time. Linda, we learn, is 28 though she claims to be 23. John should have been played by a far younger looking, more energetic actor. Ladd was badly miscast here.

As for John he much prefers to hang out with a group of children, about eight or nine years old, sketching them as they play in his yard. He takes on a Mr. Rogers persona in these scenes. Innocent then, but today this affinity for kids would end up with a few calls to the police from worried parents.

The pivot point in the movie is when Linda goes missing Gone Girl style, and the townspeople suspect John of murder. John is determined to clear his name, but he faces an uphill battle. The easily upset townspeople are already convinced of his guilt, and form a vigilante mob replete with axe handles, baseball bats, and shotguns! As if this was Alabama 1940 not a sleepy Connecticut bedroom town. More troubling for John: the police are not exactly eager to help him. The sheriff has actually been sniffing around the Hamilton place trying to score with the vampy Linda.

John goes on the run. He soon forms an alliance with the children who hide him and help him prove his innocence. Lots of plot twists ensue, some convincing, some not.

All in all, a weird movie. Direction and cinematography are good. Writing workmanlike. But the movie switches back and forth from a 1950s melodrama to a kids' adventure story to fugitive on the run.

A Lynch Mob in Connecticut? You betcha...wow what a bad film

[nomoons11 · 3/10 · 15 November 2012]

Words can't describe how bad this film is. I'm gonna try my best though.

I'll say right off that Alan Ladd just looks terrible in this. He was in his mid to late 40's and he looked like he was in his 60's. His scenes where he runs looks like he's an old man. I don't know if he wasn't athletic or he was under the influence of something but this performance reminded me of the last film Montgomery Clift did. With the exception of Shane and a few film noirs in the 40's, Alan Ladd was not a very good actor. He's a cigar store Indian in his thing. Looks and even is as wooden as one. Just terrible all the way through.

A struggling, use to be art director at an ad firm decides to move to Connecticut country with his wife. She's highly unstable and a drunk to boot. She had a breakdown in New York and he wants to see if the country will help. While he's there he can concentrate on his art/painting. She's feels trapped in the country and wants to go back to New York but he insists on a Psychiatrist visit. She refuses. He gets a job offer from his previous company with better money but he would rather just paint and try and sell his stuff. With this decision, the crux of the film starts. We get a seriously ill woman who does everything to ruin her husband. She does everything imaginable and then.... she gets killed and he gets framed for it. Then the Connecticut lynch mob appears and they want this guilty rascal for all it's worth.

It's just a B film all the way folks. The only stand out performance is Carolyn Jones' portrayal of the psychotic alcoholic wife. She really nails it down. Other than that this is just a bottom feeder. There's one scene where he gets a phone call from a friend. After the call ends he leaves the room and you can see a crew members shadow in the foreground of the scene. It wouldn't be too obvious if he didn't walk right by. I mean I thought it was Alan Ladd but nope. Wow, now that's quality editing. I grew up in the south and I've never heard of a lynch mob from Connecticut. I thought people from the north east were progressive and gave people the benefit of the doubt. This guy was an artist and strange so that meant...he guilty...let's go get him.

Folks...save your time and run from this thing. To call this thing anything else but bad would sully the name of bad.

The quest for a lost wife driving a community mad

[clanciai · 9/10 · 13 July 2023]

A serious and gifted artist is married to a neurotic alcoholic wife, whom he saved from the rat pack stress of New York, but she isn't happy about her life in a small village in the country, and every now and then falls back down into drinking bouts again with neurotic outbursts, so he decides she should go to a psychiatrist. She agrees, he goes to New York to meet him, but he is unavailable, so Alan Ladd goes back home and finds his house all smashed up with all his paintings, and his wife gone without a trace. There is a note, though, without a signature, printed on a typewriter, in which she tells him to find another wife to torture. This would have broken down any artist but not Alan Ladd. He finds traces to indicate she has been murdered, the whole village eagerly believes he is the murderer, so they all go for a lynching spree, but Alan Ladd escapes and begins to add two and two together. It's a great thriller worthy of Michael Curtiz' expert direction with 40 years of experience, and here he has a particularly good hand with children. But Carolyn Jones as the wife is the one who makes the deepest impression.

Bad on so many levels

[sprechershops · 1/10 · 13 July 2023]

The acting is some of the worst ever - how did these people "make it" in Hollywood. The only good actor, sort of, is the woman who gets killed. A couple of ancillary, not-yet-discovered actors have a couple of lines and are better actors than the main ones.

Creeper alerts 1 the guy hangs out with little kids 2 he hides alone in a cave with 1 and then 2 little girls 3 he enlists the kids to help him dodge the police & lie to their parents to help create his alibi and prove himself innocent

Sociopath in training - the youngest girl threatens to kill the older girl while she is actually strangling her & the adult in the cave just watches on. Then he gives the older girl the ok sign to condone her manipulating the younger girl to believe she is the one in control.

For 1959, it's surprisingly poorly written, acted, produced. The cringe effect is at every turn - if the storyline is in anyway interesting to you, then the acting and character development makes it unbearable.

This Alan Ladd guy was really a star?

The kids are slightly better actors than Ladd - but the whole thing is like a school play. Ugh.

Hmmm

[searchanddestroy-1 · 11 February 2023]

Well this film could have been made by the likes of Mitchell Leison, Delbert or Daniel Mann, and certainly not the great Michael Curtiz. Of course Joan Crawford would have been a great help, who she was used to work with Curtiz, and Alan Ladd is far from his best here, in this domestic drama, not even thriller. Forget THIS GUN FOR HIRE or SHANE. I prefered him in THE CARPETBAGGERS, his last movie, actually. This one is not lousy, not even boring, but predictable, however the atmosphere is not that bad. I guess the Curtiz's experience. This is not the Curtiz's film that I will remind the most, his Warner Bros years were far far away.