L'Obsédé

Edward Dmytryk directed this British film Obsession during his exile years in the United Kingdom and was fortunate to have Robert Newton in the lead. As the cheated upon husband Newton who could chew up the scenery when let loose gets a firm directorial hand. His performance here is really brilliant because it is so carefully controlled.

Newton is married to Sally Gray who isn't all that subtle with her affairs. But this one with American Phil Brown is just one too many. He takes Brown prisoner and locks him in a dungeon in one of the bombed out buildings of London at the time. There he keeps Brown on a chain like a dog, but when Gray's pet terrier Monty follows Newton to the dungeon and has to be kept there, it's the missing dog that proves to be the mistake Newton didn't count on.

I have to say that Newton did have a meticulously conceived plan for the murder and that he did have a reason other than sadism for keeping him alive for weeks until he was ready to do the deed.

Like Dmytryk, Brown was also a victim of the blacklist and glad to be working over there. His American speech pattern and idiom also contributes to Newton's downfall.

Kudos also go to Naunton Wayne as the Scotland Yard police inspector who pursues this investigation with Columbo like intensity. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the Columbo character was inspired by Obsession and Naunton Wayne.

This is one top drawer British noir feature.

Obsession is adapted from a book by Alec Coppel (who also wrote the screenplay) and is yet another film based on the idea of a man in search of 'the perfect murder'. The film takes on a dark noir tone and the film focuses on both the story at hand, as well as the psychology of the lead character. The lead character is Dr. Clive Riordan; a prominent psychologist. He's an articulate and intelligent man and so when he discovers his wife is having a string of affairs right under his nose, he decides to do something about it, by way of shocking her into not having any more affairs. He drops in on his wife one night while she is enjoying an evening with a lover - an American named Bill Kronin - and holds the two of them at gunpoint. After humiliating his wife; she leaves the room, while he and the American leave shortly afterwards. The American then disappears; the wife believes her husband has murdered the man as he promised he would, but the truth is much more sinister as the psychologist goes in pursuit of the perfect murder.

The lead role is taken by Robert Newton, who makes for an excellent lead. His portrayal of the central character is thoroughly captivating, and much of the film's success is owed to this. The film also benefits from an excellent script, which really makes the characters seem real and provides some excellent lines of dialogue - a scene between the lead character a police officer over the varying skills of the police and murderers is a major highlight. The plot itself flows very well as the film moves along and more than does enough to hold the audience's attention; the psychologist's musings over his theories on how to commit the perfect crime are one of the main points of interest. The atmosphere of the film is very dark and director Edward Dmytryk lays style on very thick which is of great benefit to the story, which is very dark itself. Things get very tense as we near the ending and the end itself is strong and gives good closure to the story. Overall, Obsession is a great thriller and well worth the effort of tracking down. Highly recommended!

This film is based on a novel ('A Man about a Dog') by Alec Coppel, who wrote Hitchcock's 'Vertigo'. This story is far creepier and more sinister than that one. Robert Newton, who the previous year had entranced people as Bill Sikes in 'Oliver Twist', and who was to be cursed with the role of Long John Silver the next year, from which he would struggle to escape for the rest of his life, here shows what a fine standard British actor he was. He plays a highly articulate and urbane London psychiatrist who beneath his mask is actually an obsessive and sadistic psychopath. Anyone who thinks psychiatrists cannot be more mentally ill than their patients is naive: I have known two psychiatrists personally (no, I was not a patient) who were totally insane. It is a good place to hide when you are psychotic, as no one can question you. Newton is perfect in this part, and his calm never leaves him till the end, as he carries out his odious plans with the unruffled manner of a cleaner dusting a bookshelf (and he has plenty of bookshelves). Newton is married to a compulsively unfaithful wife, played with style by the glamorous Sally Gray (who made one more film the next year and then became Lady Oranmore and retired from the screen). One day he snaps, and Phil Brown is the American lover who bears the brunt. As Newton says to him: 'You've heard about the straw that broke the camel's back? Well, you're the straw.' With meticulous cunning, Newton imprisons Brown in a cellar on a deserted bombsite (this is just after the War, and bombsites were everywhere in London). He holds him for months, and Brown very cleverly creates a character who attempts to bond with his captor, in the hope that he can somehow escape. Brown is kept chain within a chalked circle of his subterranean den, and Newton stands just at the edge of it and lectures Brown about how each time he comes he brings a hot water bottle full of yet more acid with which he is slowly filling the bath tub into which he will place Brown's body when it comes time to kill him, where it will dissolve. 'So I'll just go down the plug?' asks Brown, and Newton solemnly agrees. This film is really nasty and does not let up in showing us the calculating manner in which a psychopath goes about his carefully coordinated crime plan. Ed Dmytryk directs chillingly and tautly, and surprisingly the music is by Nino Rota of Italy, who later would become famous for composing the music for major Italian directors like Visconti and Fellini. Naunton Wayne plays a Scotland yard superintendent with a calm and menace which exceeds even that of Newton's. This film in a sense is a study in the mannered British way of behaving, and the politenesses exchanged between a criminal and a detective who are enemies, as well as between a husband and a wife who loathe each other but for some reason never split up, living on in their elegant house with no children but the dog Monty, played by a real dog called Monty. And here is the rub: Monty messes things up in a major way, but that would be telling. For those who can bear the extremely grisly and claustrophobic aspects of this sick tale, which was a forerunner of 'The Collector' with Samantha Eggar, this film could be recommended as good noir fare. But it is not pleasant, and it lacks the surreal and haunting quality of 'Vertigo' entirely. It is certainly a savage comment on the arch hypocrisy of traditional upper middle class British manners, and all that they can conceal, such as 'something nasty in the shed'.

A London psychiatrist (Robert Newton) catches his wife (Sally Gray) in an affair with an American (Phil Brown). Apparently this is not her first affair, and Newton, as the objective and self-controlled psychiatric professional, decides to settle things in a well-thought-out way by first kidnapping and then imprisoning the American in a hidden room not too far removed from the actual residence, with the ultimate goal of killing him without leaving any incriminating traces. The film could have been more dramatic by playing up the relationship between Newton and the beautiful Sally Gray. Gray seems to be telling the viewer that Newton never really loved her, although it also seems as if her youth and passion were too much for his middle-aged character to handle. In any event the plot, which is remarkably well done, inevitably leads to a police or Scotland Yard type investigation and eventual solving of the crime, rather than a dark story.

A wonderful, tight drama that begins with a British gentleman (Robert Newton) turning up unexpectedly to surprise his wife (Sally Gray) and her American lover (Phil Brown). Angered by her string of infidelities, he's planned the perfect revenge, but I won't describe the plot further. I loved the intelligent, British dialogue put side by side with a truly dark crime. The performances are fine, and director Edward Dmytryk creates a nice noir feeling. The detective played by Naunton Wayne is a forerunner of Columbo, turning up to ask 'one more question' with a veneer of innocence, but flashing his understanding and unnerving the culprit. A hidden gem.