Purely Joyful Movie!

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It's bad enough when your past catches up to you, but it's even worse when somebody else's idea of what your past should be catches up to you.Richard Basehart is a movie maker. A scandal back in the states has driven him to begin a new career in England. That's a plot that should have resonated with the director, Joseph Losey. Basehart's current project is expensive and dicey and the studio is on edge about overruns and expensive costumes.Then Basehart, a happily married man, begins to get loving letters reminding him of a past romance from a woman named Evelyn. That would be Mary Murphy. Basehart, already tense, his reputation as a womanizer haunting his reputation, becomes an unhappily harried man and is driven to see a shrink, who is of no help.He tracks down Mary Murphy and she insists that her story is real, that they had a passionate affair in New York and he'd promised her a job if she came to England. Everything she says rings true. She even convinced the police. He loses his job, his wife leaves him, and he develops a monster hangnail. Either she's lying, for reasons no one can discern, or Basehart is some kind of multiple personality. I won't give away the ending.Basehart is a likable guy. He LOOKS like a reliable Mid-Western type, but his best roles have involved twisted characters. Mary Murphy is a beautiful woman. She was a winsome small-town girl in "The Wild Ones." But here she's not up to the demands of a bitchy, self-serving manipulator. And grooming doesn't help. They've given her a severe hair style and dressed her in "sophisticated" black outfits with some kind of girdle or foundation garment underneath that has pinched her waist into nullity and caused her rear to look cantilevered.Joseph Losey's direction is straightforward for the most part. What isn't strictly functional -- a fist fight shown by shadows on a wall -- isn't too original. And the violent ending seems excessive, with a pudgy and middle-aged Mervyn Johns being knocked about the room by a furious Basehart.

I don't know why, but somehow Richard Basehart always reminded me just a little of Richard Burton...although I liked Basehart a bit more. Unfortunately, Basehart never made it to the A list, even though I thought he was a good and fairly interesting actor. Maybe the problem was scripts that left a bit to be desired...like this one.Here, his character as a film director seems...well, a tad bit stereotypical, at least on the surface. Really, constantly carrying around a cane for no reason just seems a little goofy.But, once you get back the superficial aspects of this film, it gets pretty good. What has to happen to get to that point is getting past the mysterious letters that seem to be hinting at blackmail, to actually meeting the mysterious girl...which finally does happen. Then things get quite good, quite interesting as the mystery deepens.If you look carefully, you'll see this film was on a pretty cheap budget (for example, painted books on a bookshelf). The other problem I have with this film is that it has that sort of tawdry look to it that was not uncommon in lower budget 1950s film...that lacked the class of film noir.The ending is pretty good, although hardly unique.Let's put it this way -- you could do worse. It's worth a watch, but I doubt you'll buy it for your DVD shelf.

****SPOILERS****British film executive Reggie Wilson, Richard Basehart, is about to commit himself into the "Funny Farm" because of all these letters he's been getting postage marked New Castle from this woman Evelyn Stewart, Mary Murphy, claiming that he had a hot and heavy affair with her back in New York some five years ago. Not remembering a thing about this supposed affair Reggie feeling he's being blackmailed goes to New Castle to confront Evelyn and finally get to the bottom of all this mental anguish he's being put through. Going to New Castle with his wife-a really bad idea-Lesley,Faith Brooke, it become apparent to everyone his wife the police as well as himself that there's some truth to Evelyn's accusations about his affair with her even though Reggie can't remember a thing about it!With the head of the studio as well as his father-in-law Ben Case, not Ben Casey of the 1960's TV series,played by Roger Livesey giving Reggie a forced leave of absence he take a trip to the studio to both chill out and get his act together! It's then that everything comes together for him when he spots Evelyn showing up there for a job as if it's some kind of pay off by Case in her driving him nutty! What turns out is that Evelyn got her wires crossed in thinking that Case was behind all this manipulating poor Reggie's head! And that's when Reggie finally found who's been pulling the strings to get him kicked out of his job and end up in the loony bin!****SPOILERS**** Wild final with Reggie finding out and exposing, with a hidden microphone, the person behind his troubles with his father-in-law and boss Ben Case listening in. Evelyn soon realizing that she somehow has been set up to be the pasty in all this takes a powder only to be caught as she tries to make a quick getaway form the studio grounds. As for the person who set Reggie up he tries to gun him down only to find out that the sub-machine, which he should have known, that he tried to blast him with was only a harmless movie prop!

OK, perhaps I rated this a little too high, but anything featuring the very good Richard Basehart is fine in my book. Having seen this a while ago, I recently watched the beginning and the ending once again.The beginning draws you in to a story which, while not especially original, does provide enough mystery and twists and turns to be involving. The actors are all highly professional, and the directing is serviceable. Earlier reviews have suggested that Losey (director) had the usual axe to grind as a blacklisted Hollywood veteran. Well, perhaps, but if that was the case, he didn't succeed.Instead what we have is a psychological drama (a la film noir) in which our protagonist is assailed by an unkind fate (personified by an unexpectedly satisfying Mary Murphy). Things go badly as the film moves toward the predictable climax, when all is revealed. Here, Losey pulls out all of his particular directorial stops and gives us a good cinematic treat as Basehart tangles with the real (albeit somewhat wimpy) villain of the piece in a shadow play bravura conflict. Decent film, well worth your time. 4 out of 5.