Highly Overrated But Still Good

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

On the run gambler, con man Chris Hale Joseph Cotton inveigles his way into a small All- American town to lie low for awhile. He charms his way into the good graces of locals and begins a relationship with a local shoe titan's wheel chair bound daughter (Valli). While he envisions starting anew in this town he can't resist making one more big score by ripping off a vicious thug. The theft is cleanly pulled off and Hale disappears back to his small community where he has assumed another identity. Unfortunately his unstable partner in the robbery tracks him down and from here things begin to unravel. Fresh from their Third Man pairing Joseph Cotton and Valli made this stylish little noir that at times evokes masterworks of the genre such as Shadow of a Doubt and Out of the Past. It has some tightly edited and well filmed suspenseful moments and Cotton as always gives a strong understated performance. Valli on the other hand is still in her post war Vienna funk so enigmatic in Third Man but dull and lifeless here. Upbeat Spring Byington and especially surly and troubled Paul Stewart provide effective opposite examples of the human condition that pull at Hale's conscience. Unfortunately in it's final scene, Walk Softly Stranger takes advice from its title and signs off with a mawkish tacked on ending that obliterates the impact of the previous scene which is infinitely more compatible to the overall doomed mood of story and character.

This forgotten gem was of interest for a number of reasons.First, it's directed by Robert Stevenson, the man responsible for a superb thriller, To the Ends of the Earth (1948) with Dick Powell in the lead. Steveson, however, has a long list of fine films to his credit, beginning (for me) with Tom Brown's Schooldays (1940), all the way to The Love Bug (1968) and Herbie Rides Again (1974) – if you like fantasy comedy...But second, this film echoes the matching of Cotton and Valli in The Third Man (1949), arguably one of the best film-noir made (directed by Carol Reed, of course). Reading the additional information about this film, however, I learnt that it was actually made before The Third Man but keep on ice for two years.In this narrative, however, Cotton as Chris Hale breaks the mold of the bashful, loyal and trustworthy good guy he was known for in so many previous movies. That is, while this is certainly another of the film-noir genre, it doesn't have a femme fatale: Chris Hale is the homme fatale – the man with the fatal flaw in his past, and the one that catches up with him.In contrast, Valli as Elaine Corelli is the broken rose: a woman of substance and great beauty but, because of a tragic accident, unwilling to expose herself to potential failure again, especially in matters of the heart. When Hale turns up, however, she is drawn to him, despite her misgivings at first.Arguably, she should have listened to her head because Hale has a hidden agenda – in fact, that's why he's in Elaine's town where her father practically owns it: Hale wants to stay hiding in plain sight, as a model citizen, because he thinks the guys he robbed a while back – gangsters who ran a casino in another state - will never find him... More fool he, because his ex-buddy turns up to ask for a handout – and so, Hale's cover is blown and it's only a matter of time before the killers follow.What follows then are Hale's attempts to get clear of the bad guys and redeem himself with Elaine; so, I'll leave you to enjoy that denouement. When you do, watch for the great sight gag that includes the words: "Next time, go by air", a moment of levity that foreshadows an ending that is, if not entirely happy, at least shows promise of hope.Cotton does an excellent job as a calculating, unflappable and competent con man who gradually sees the need, within himself, to change his ways; Valli once again exudes troubled emotions and repressed sexuality with great finesse; that great character actor, Paul Stewart shines as the craven Whitey Lake, Hale's buddy; and John McIntire appears, for once, as not a cop – as In Psycho (1960) - but as an office manager, Morgan. And, let's not forget Spring Byington who plays...well, Mrs Brentman/Spring Byington, the landlady.Recommended for all, especially for film-noir fans.

I gave this a six because it is sort of a film noir. It's not really very good, though.Joseph Cotten was a superb actor. He did fine work for Orson Welles and is unforgettable in "Shadow of A Doubt." He was a low-keyed performer. However, he seems to be walking through this movie half-asleep. It's hard to get a fix on the character he plays and when we do, we don't really buy it.Alidda Valli was attractive but not much of an actress. She is implausible as a heavily accented local in a small city -- despite the explanation that she had been away till she was 18. The whole thing with her in a wheelchair and Cotten's being redeemed by dealing with a disabled person: Please! (That is giving nothing away. It's clear this is where the plot if going as soon as he meets her.) I saw a commercial video and sequences seemed to have been cut. If not, the editing is sloppy: There is a brief sequence in which Cotten's character is playing cards with an older woman whom we are apparently meant to know. I didn't recall having seen her before. Maybe I had dozed off. (But I don't think so.)

This film stars Joseph Cotten as a con man who robs a gambling house and then goes to his old hometown in Ohio to hide out. He meets a girl he once knew but she's a cripple, but he doesn't care. There's more to the story but i don't want to spoil it. There were some things that didn't ring true and the movie is just too short. Joseph Cotten does a good job as does the rest of the cast.