I remember watching it when I was a kid and it scared me badly. Revisiting it so many years later, not so much. Maybe it was the Watergate era in the intervening years that makes everybody suspect anybody and everybody else. But I digress.
Barbara Stanwyck, still a handsome woman at 57, plays Irene Trent. She's married to a wealthy maimed blind ....scientist???...Howard Trent, who is over the top jealous and thinks because his wife talks in her sleep about some dream lover she is actually having an affair. They have a confrontation about his suspicions, he tries to strike her with his cane, and she runs into the street. At about that time there is smoke coming from Howard's lab. And yet blind, he goes up into that lab to handle this himself, there is a fiery explosion, and no more Howard.
And I mean literally no more Howard as in no body. The arson squad guy thinks this is not odd and says there was such extreme heat that the body disintegrated, while he stands next to all kinds of electrical equipment that is undamaged. And the fireproof door saved the rest of the house, and yet there is a hole in the floor. Is there a physicist in the house?
So the thing is, Irene starts having vivid dreams, as in a young man who comes to her, even marries her, with each dream ending with a burned Howard appearing. She feels like these "dreams" are actually happening, not just her imagination. What is going on here? Watch and find out.
So many questions and issues. How did Howard and Irene meet and why would she marry him? She seems to completely loathe every aspect of the guy. She had/has her own business that is doing well, was it just his money? This is never explained. The creepy organ music seems to be "Food Glorious Food" from Oliver, four years before the fact. And there are some very large plot holes - I'll let you find them - I still can't explain. And finally a warning - the film's prologue about dreams goes on forever.
And yet, in spite of all of this, I still like it. It is very much an example of "last gasp of the production code" horror. No gore, no "blood feasts", no hippies. Everybody is always dressed like they are going to work. It uses actual suspense - and mannequins! - to scare you. I'd recommend it.
