The Whole Truth

Though leading man Stewart Granger has occasionally played the heel in a few films, the greatest screen cad of all George Sanders dominates this film playing a very wounded cad. He's a publisher of religious textbooks married to that most unlikely of mates, the voluptuous movie star Gianna Marie Canale who has used her feminine wiles to get to the top of the film business. Her latest conquest is producer Stewart Granger who is a bit down in the mouth since wife Donna Reed left him.

The Whole Truth has Sanders planning a most methodical revenge against his wife and against Granger whom he sees as the pinnacle of all the men Canale cheated on him with. Sanders gives an academy award winning performance, even better than the Oscar winning one he got for All About Eve with the French police.

Though The Whole Truth is far from All About Eve it's a decent enough thriller with Hollywood's greatest cad dominating the proceedings.

The whole truth. The 1958 one. Stewart granger, donna reed, george sanders. Married but separated max poulton (granger) has been enjoying the company of his leading lady gina (giana canale) while out of town, working on a film. But when he tells gina it's over, she gets angry. Then carliss from scotland yard shows up, asking questions. About gina's murder. And then, a very drunk gina shows up! And she hasn't been murdered. So what is this carliss pulling? And when things get crazy, now carliss is telling a completely different story. What's going on ? Can max convince the coppers that he had no part in any of this? We feel the suspense and anguish that poulton is going through, as the police lock him up. It's pretty good. Kind of a silly bit right at the very end, but it all works. Based on the play by philip mackie. He won the bafta for court martial. Directed by john guillerman. He had also directed the 78 version of death on the nile, and towering inferno!

Max Poulton (Stewart Granger) is a movie producer working on the French Riviera and having a tempestuous affair with his leading lady, Gina (Gianna Maria Canale). Max considers coming clean to his faithful wife, Carol (Donna Reed), but a mysterious man named Carliss (George Sanders), a detective from Scotland Yard, informs Max that Gina has been murdered. When Gina shows up to Carol's party alive, and then is murdered hours later, Max believes he has been set up by Carliss, who now claims that he was Gina's husband and not a detective.

A slick and stylish whodunit with many twists and turns stars Stewart Granger who is quite debonair and convincing as a film producer who is framed for the murder of an actress he once had a fling with. She threatens to reveal this to his wife. But of course, she gets stabbed, but not before George Sanders, in a typical slimy cad role, appears, kickstarting a cat and mouse situation. From the beginning, THE WHOLE TRUTH proves to be quite a compelling thriller, and it's a great to see Granger and Sanders play off against each other. Gianna Maria Canale as the vamp-like actress is really good in her role, and Donna Reed does well, too.

Film Producer Max Poulton is having an affair with his leading lady, the hot tempered beauty, Gina Bertini. During a party one night, Max is visited by a man named Carliss, who claims to be from CID, and explains that Gina had been murdered, Gina later pops up at the party, what possible reason could Carliss have for lying?

Before I give an opnio, I'll start by saying I adore mysteries from the fifties and sixties, especially those from Durbridge, Hitchcock and Wallace, this is very much a film in their style. Expect suspense and intrigue, and several scenes to leave you scratching your head.

I really enjoyed it, a slick and stylish mystery, considering the amazing cast it doesn't particularly feel high budget, but the story and acting more than make up for it. It's is beautifully filmed, there is also some wonderful location work to enjoy. I even enjoyed the accompanying music, it fits the film well.

After a fast paced, exciting opening, the mystery really does begin, there are so many curious occurrences, but it's well plotted, and ultimately it's very satisfying.

I was mainly looking forward to seeing Stewart Grainger, and he's excellent, but the film was stolen by George Sanders. The whole cast do a fine job, the scene in The Cafe where Poulton learns from Carliss exactly what's going on is great.

8/10.

I rated this film 5/10 as it was no more than par for the course.The minute George Sanders appeared, I knew he was going to play another suave sophisticated villain as he has played in so many other films.Donna Reed must have been disappointed with her rather anodyne part and Stewart Granger does his best with the dialogue in the mediocre screenplay.

As far as I was concerned, the star of the film was the 1958 white Jaguar XK3 sports car.A few location shots around the south of France were seen but the rest was obviously shot in a film studio.The most farcical shot was a so called "car chase" that seemed to be wholly and claustrophobically shot on the film set where the cars seemed to be going round in circles around the artificial buildings!