I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Good concept, poorly executed.

Absolutely Brilliant!

Blistering performances.

Possibly director Ulmer's worst movie. I simply can't understand the bizarre raves for this terrible picture. People go on about it as if it were made by Hitchcock! The plot is obvious, there is no suspense, it's fast=paced yet still manages to be tedious, Everyone knows what's going on practically from the first so there are no surprises. Inspired by Hamlet? Give me a break! As for the acting, Lydon is okay and Warren William is wasted.

Forget you're watching Henry Aldrich being serious for a change. Jimmy Lydon gives a surprisingly convincing performance as a young man who discovers that his widowed mother (Sally Eilers) is involved with someone he instantly doesn't trust. That possible no-good man is played by the playboy of the '30's (Warren William) who is as suave and smooth as ever, and here, it is obvious that even if he isn't the nefarious fortune hunter Lydon believes him to be, he is up to something. At first, practically everybody around him believes this to be some adolescent attempt to keep his mother from forgetting her late, older husband, all except doctor friend Regis Toomey. The film opens with Lydon having a nightmare where the detailed clues come together as some type of pending doom. When details of this dream really begin to happen, Lydon pretends to have a breakdown so he can end up in the institution where he believes psychiatric professor Charles Arnt and William have cooked up a scheme against him and his mother.Like a later classic film noir, "The Window" (1949), this is the story of youth not being believed because they tend to over-exaggerate, or in Bobby Driscoll's case of the later film, actually did "cry wolf". Lydon is an intelligent youth with typical teenaged problems, and some of the mature figures around him believe he has a serious mother complex which needs to be cured in order to accept her re-marrying. To see him playing a role other than Henry Aldrich (Paramount's somewhat obscure version of the Andy Hardy series) is jarring at first as he proves himself to be a fine young dramatic actor. Eilers, a forgotten leading lady of the 1930's, is properly regal as his mom, and Toomey is less wooden than normal as the only father figure Lydon seems to be willing to accept. William is appropriately snake-like as he keeps tabs on his stepson to be, and while the audience is already in the know from the start that he is an opportunist, that doesn't prepare them for what the truth ends up becoming.During this era, the poverty row studios were giving the A studios a run for their money when it came to the film noir/thriller game with some interesting gems like "When Strangers Marry" (Monogram) and PRC's "Detour" and "Decoy", among others. "Strange Illusion" takes away the world-weary detective and scheming femme fatale for this unique film noir and gives us a hero in youth itself, determined to prove that sometimes, youth must be taken seriously and that sinister minds are sometimes hidden behind smiling faces. This makes another gem directed by the wonderful Edgar G. Ulmer, who took us on that wonderfully dangerous "Detour" the very same year.

Certainly, quite early on in his career, Jimmy Lydon was "trapped" in the Henry Aldrich series and while "Life With Father" may have been his most prestigious film, "Strange Illusion" gave him his best role.Paul Csrtwright (Jimmy Lydon) is troubled by recurring nightmares in which his dead father warns him about a stranger's evil intentions about his family. He is staying with his teacher Dr. Vincent (Regis Toomey) but feels he must go home at once to protect his mother and his sister. When he arrives home he finds his mother, Virginia (Sally Eilers) has been seeing a lot of Brett Curtis (Warren William) - a man who Paul feels uneasy about at first sight. His sister Dorothy has a great crush on him but Brett is a sinister villain with a weakness for young girls.Paul's dream starts to come true, Dorothy receives a bracelet from Curtis, he hears a very loud concerto and then faints. He decides to investigate Curtis, with the help of the family servant, Ben (George Reed), who has never liked Curtis. Before he died, Paul's father started to investigate a shocking unsolved crime involving the drowning of a wealthy young widow. Paul has a right to be worried, Brett has a grudge against Cartwright, whose meddling stopped his plans years before - he now wants revenge. Brett's first plan is to convince Virginia to marry him and then to have Paul committed to a sanatorium. Meanwhile Paul's friend Lydia confesses that she has had a confrontation with Brett at her family pool and has always felt uncomfortable around him. Paul is keen to go to the hospital - he thinks he will find out something there as Brett is very close with the head doctor.This was a really good movie with the dream sequences a bit of a twist on the tired old "why won't anyone believe me" style plot. Warren William made these type of roles his own - the icy exterior hiding deep feelings (in this case murderous). Sally Eilers looked lovely as the mother, caught in the middle of a suave conman and her son's concern. Both of these fine actors left the screen in the next couple of years. Again, it is a movie I would recommend.

Much has been made of Mr. Ulmer's talent, and here, he makes good use of it. While someone on the order of a brooding Farley Granger, for example, would have been preferable as the lead, James Lydon, nonetheless, turns in a commendable job as Paul Cartwright, a college student haunted by prophetic dreams. It's genuinely refreshing for a change, to look back upon a time, when teen-agers were still presented in a wholesome and appealing light. And, Mr. Lydon, movieland's "Henry Aldrich" certainly had the credentials for those traits. But, here, Lydon is caught in a story of deathly threats, with implications far more threatening, than the "Golly--Gee!" consequences of smashing his date's corsage for the Senior Prom.As for the plot, Paul, manages to prevent his wealthy widowed mother from marrying a male gold-digger, with a string of unsolved murders in his past. Naturally, Paul has to undergo any number of travails before the violent denouement, including amateur "detective" work that triggers both a feigned and a near real nervous collapse. He is even "voluntarily" committed to an asylum where further sinister developments befall him. The ending, cleverly finds him lost in an unconscious dream state again, but now enjoying a vision of a liberated and happy future.Mr. Lydon was "slumming" at PRC, on loan from Paramount, and preparatory to his turns with glamorous Elizabeth Taylor in "Life With Father" and "Cynthia" both glossy, expensive, mainline productions. Nonetheless, this PRC production possesses relatively handsome art direction and production values, given that, based on production files with the American Film Institute, it was actually shot in just 15 days, (as opposed to the erroneous oft-cited 6 day schedule.) By the way, take a good, hard, look at the exteriors of the Lydon family chateau in this. Look familiar? Yes, it's the same house used as Robert Walker's home in "Strangers on a Train" and June Lockhart's in "Bury Me Dead."All told, if you enjoy crime stories focused on young people trapped in traumatic circumstances, it's definately worth a look.