6 reviews
I rather enjoyed this movie, and waiting to see how they were going to tie it all up held my interest. A previous reviewer brought up a good point - that the ending was probably tacked on to satisfy the production code. As far-fetched as the ending was, it was still unexpected and creative.
An entertaining enough film, but a bit too "cute" and tries a bit too hard to be funny for hard-core film-noir fans like myself. For a far superior adaptation of the same Chandler story, I highly recommend "Farewell My Lovely" (1975).
Incredibly silly story worth watching if only for the fabulous Evelyn Brent. Neil Hamilton is a photographer hoping to cash in by pretending to be a psychic who can contact dead loved ones. His main target, a society girl, comes off as a completely gullible moron, and Neil Hamilton is hardly a "hero" as a man determined to make it big by being a fraud. You wonder what Evelyn Brent sees in him, and even more so, you wonder how Evelyn Brent stooped so low after her fabulous performances in "Underworld" and "The Last Command".
I saw the restored version of this film, which was funded by and shown on Turner Classic Television. Realizing that it was a filmed stage play done in 1912, I had no unrealistic expectations for the production values. And, as an early 20th century stage play, I thought it was quite good, But...and I still can't get over this...the soundtrack was so inappropriate that I had to watch the film with the TV muted. I have nothing against "modern" soundtracks for silent films, and in some cases, they work very well, such as Moroder's "Metropolis", but this was downright laughable in many places.
The stars are beautifully photographed; the lighting sets the mood, and Ben Hecht's Academy Award winning screenplay all combine to make this the definitive "gangster picture", done before many of the elements became cliches.