Very best movie i ever watch

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Great Film overall

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Interesting, atmospheric late-'40s near-noir, shot through with smoky exteriors and great moody lighting. But it's just a variation on the Faust legend, and not an imaginatively conceived one. Thomas Mitchell, a good man running for governor, is courted by Ray Milland, who's essentially the devil. He talks in epigrams and charms when he wants to and bends fate to his will, and he enlists femme fatale Audrey Totter (who's splendid) to lure Mitchell away from his good, moral, dull wife. There's some fine Franz Waxman blasting beneath the surface, and some good character actors turn up--Fred Clark as a corrupt pol, Darryl Hickman as a bad kid turning better. What ruins it for me is the sanctimonious posturing, from a too-good-to-be-true priest to some absurd plot points- -Milland refuses to be touched, and is ultimately done in by being unable to touch a Bible. Though Milland's top-billed, Mitchell is really the lead, and he's good. But the picture sermonizes too much for its own good.

This is yet another take on the Faust tale. Other then perhaps the addition of a femme fatale the film really offers nothing new to the mix. Ray Milland as the devil is the only reason to sit through this, he really plays it cool and he is certainly a demon I'd want to make deals with. When a reporter asked the Welsh Milland at age 80 if he had any big plans he replied, ''Just to go home now and sit in my black leather chair and read. I've read everything, I think. I've got 3,000 books at home, and, believe it or not, I've read every one of them, including the Bible. It turned out to be a pretty dirty book.''With the great acting and script Alias Nick Beal is actually pretty enjoyable up until the conclusion. I don't know if the Hays Code demanded that they wrap it up in such an antiseptic fashion, but the ending was such puke it made me forget about anything good that may have come before.

A super triple-plus cheer for the 1949 "Alias Nick Beal"! Director John Farrow told me this was his favorite film. "Everything came out right for once! Every scene was played, set, photographed and edited exactly the way I wanted it." And Ray Milland told me the same thing. "Alias Nick Beal!" he exclaimed. "I loved that movie!" And so right they were both were! Admittedly, I told Farrow I preferred "The Big Clock" as his finest achievement, but "Nick Beal" is definitely number two. Milland is perfect in the title role, and Totter almost equally wonderful as the floozy, but Macready had a far more winning role in the earlier film and Thomas Mitchell is no match at all for Charles Laughton. However, as superbly photographed by Lionel Lindon (who worked with Farrow again on the far less interesting "Submarine Command"), this movie definitely still comes across as a rivetingly atmospheric, film noir masterpiece.

I've seen this film perhaps twice in my life and why it 'sticks' in my memory so vividly is quite beyond me. It's very atmospheric and for a young boy, not quite in his teens, when he first saw it, it scared me to bits, I hope it arrives on DVD soon, it would be a welcome addition to my collection. Ray Milland plays the titled Nick Beal, a shadowy figure who is, or is not Old Nick AKA; The Devil himself. This guys oilier than a tin or sardines, but always charming and mysterious. From what I can remember, it's a run on the Faustian themes of selling your soul for the things you think you want, a contract written in blood and the love of a beautiful young girl. I compel the people who own the rights to this film to release it, it's wonderful and needs to be shared AND REMEMBERED!