I can see why some people compare this to Val Lewton's inexpensive productions over at RKO. This was released the year of Lewton's last picture there. And here we have a psychological horror movie with a dog instead of a panther, the possibility of supernatural intervention in everyday lives, and a woman walking alone at night down a deserted street with something mysterious following her.
But it's a bit of a sloppy lash up. Expectations of explanations go unfulfilled. Why, for instance, does the old lady's dog take a shine to the disturbed heroine, Nancy Kelly? Why does the dog decide suddenly and without reason to attack Otto Kruger, the innocent preacher? Why does the dog chew up the doll and nothing else? Why did Nancy Kelly leave the town doctor flat at the altar? (Man, is THAT one hard to believe!) Why does Gregor Samsa turn into a beetle? It all seems a great big puzzle. We would do well to remember that this was written by a man named Kafka.
Nancy Kelly returns to the Massachusetts town of Eben Rock, which has a history of burning witches. When she arrives, followed by that German shepherd for some reason, bad things begin to happen. There is a disastrous bus accident. A little girl gets sick. And it doesn't take long for the good citizens of Eben Rock to suspect Nancy Kelly of being a witch. When I say "it doesn't take long," I mean it REALLY doesn't take long.
The bus on which Kelly is returning after an absence of some years plunges into a lake and she is the only survivor. It's one of the first scenes in the movie, and here is a rough exchange between the sheriff and the preacher.
Sheriff: You know, it's mighty peculiar that the minute she shows up in town there's a bad accident.
Preacher: Are you suggesting --
Sheriff: I'm not suggesting anything. It's just peculiar, that's all.
I won't go into the plot much because it's kind of complicated, except to say that at the end all suspicions of the supernatural are dispelled. Nancy Kelly is adequate in the part of the lady who comes to believe she's possessed by the spirit of a woman burned at the stake in 1645. I kind of like John Loder. His face has the magnetic attraction of a hard-boiled egg but he has a splendid English accent. He was one of the older sons of Donald Crisp in the Welsh village of "How Green Was My Valley." I've always enjoyed Otto Kruger too. What a reliable guy. Here, he has some tough material to chew on.
The direction is pedestrian but Walter Comes and his editors have given us one sensitive scene of an approaching thunderstorm, the thunderstorm during which all climaxes must take place. Nancy Kelly is leaving a lake that looks like Walden Pond and she flings a pebble into the water, leaving slight ripples. There is a barely noticeable dissolve and we see the surface of the lake corrugated with many such ripples. Another slight dissolve and the wind has now churned the surface into coarse chop, spattered with rain.
On the whole it's pretty routine but mildly diverting. It's not nearly as disturbing -- as SCARY -- as Val Lewton's best, or as unnerving as "Carnival of Souls."
But it's a bit of a sloppy lash up. Expectations of explanations go unfulfilled. Why, for instance, does the old lady's dog take a shine to the disturbed heroine, Nancy Kelly? Why does the dog decide suddenly and without reason to attack Otto Kruger, the innocent preacher? Why does the dog chew up the doll and nothing else? Why did Nancy Kelly leave the town doctor flat at the altar? (Man, is THAT one hard to believe!) Why does Gregor Samsa turn into a beetle? It all seems a great big puzzle. We would do well to remember that this was written by a man named Kafka.
Nancy Kelly returns to the Massachusetts town of Eben Rock, which has a history of burning witches. When she arrives, followed by that German shepherd for some reason, bad things begin to happen. There is a disastrous bus accident. A little girl gets sick. And it doesn't take long for the good citizens of Eben Rock to suspect Nancy Kelly of being a witch. When I say "it doesn't take long," I mean it REALLY doesn't take long.
The bus on which Kelly is returning after an absence of some years plunges into a lake and she is the only survivor. It's one of the first scenes in the movie, and here is a rough exchange between the sheriff and the preacher.
Sheriff: You know, it's mighty peculiar that the minute she shows up in town there's a bad accident.
Preacher: Are you suggesting --
Sheriff: I'm not suggesting anything. It's just peculiar, that's all.
I won't go into the plot much because it's kind of complicated, except to say that at the end all suspicions of the supernatural are dispelled. Nancy Kelly is adequate in the part of the lady who comes to believe she's possessed by the spirit of a woman burned at the stake in 1645. I kind of like John Loder. His face has the magnetic attraction of a hard-boiled egg but he has a splendid English accent. He was one of the older sons of Donald Crisp in the Welsh village of "How Green Was My Valley." I've always enjoyed Otto Kruger too. What a reliable guy. Here, he has some tough material to chew on.
The direction is pedestrian but Walter Comes and his editors have given us one sensitive scene of an approaching thunderstorm, the thunderstorm during which all climaxes must take place. Nancy Kelly is leaving a lake that looks like Walden Pond and she flings a pebble into the water, leaving slight ripples. There is a barely noticeable dissolve and we see the surface of the lake corrugated with many such ripples. Another slight dissolve and the wind has now churned the surface into coarse chop, spattered with rain.
On the whole it's pretty routine but mildly diverting. It's not nearly as disturbing -- as SCARY -- as Val Lewton's best, or as unnerving as "Carnival of Souls."