Touches You

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Good psychologist against astrologer quack, with the beautiful wife inbetween. Deductive and grounded science of mind, as they were pushing for psychology at the time, against hypnotism's murky intuitions.Not so strangely then the film assumes the first view, one of solid reality. The film has no visual reach into soul, dares not. Preminger was right for this job of merely dressing from the outside. But it is perfectly written in that oldfashioned way of spoken complexity, that is until a pretty ridiculous late twist. Normally I don't go for it but it's just so good here, witty and layered.Superficially, we have similarities to Laura: the coveted woman trapped in stories about her, in a capricious storyteller's world, if you'll remember Laura begins with a writer preparing to writer her story. An infatuated detective trying to reclaim her, here the husband. And her acquiring life outside the story. A crucial setpiece happens in a livingroom beneath a portrait, mirroring the scene of Laura's first appearance in that film.But for me this is better, because beneath the storytelling layers there is a commitment to a shared and precious life.We know for one that she was pure every step of the way, manipulated out of shame. More modern films would shy from this knowledge, but it matters here that everything rests on her being a good soul. What is at stake is not just who done it, but one soulmate's faith and commitment to the other. The hypnotist villain is truly one of the most wretched, not in any comicbook way of threatening anonymous millions with some thingamajig, but for trying to destroy this faith.And finally, the most gentle notion; love as a matter of trusting his voice, piercing through the forgetfulness to remember. I think if there's one reason worth living, that is love, quaint but it is what it is. So I'm particularly dismayed when cinematic love often rings false, and overjoyed when they get it. They do here, love as waking from the stupor. Noir Meter: 3/4

Otto Preminger hit something of a speed bump in his career when he did Whirlpool. A nice cast and the makings of what could have been a good story is undone by a really incredible and unbelievable premise.Gene Tierney is the wife of psychiatrist Richard Conte who has her own issues, to wit she's a kleptomaniac. Jose Ferrer who plays a quack hypnotherapist spots her and was probably stalking her waiting for a moment to catch her stealing from a department store. He's got a fine line in blackmailing and another of his victims is Barbara O'Neil.With a little hypnosis Ferrer gets Tierney to go to O'Neil's home where she's been strangled and have the police discover her. Here's where the rub is, Jose has an iron clad alibi. I won't go any further, but ain't no way he could have done the deed given his situation. How he did it is just too much for the viewer to swallow.I will say that Ferrer does steal the film with a portrait of pure evil. Still it was a performance wasted in a mediocre movie.

Film Noir to me is dark, with evil deeds and especially unhappy endings. This was before I began thinking about it and determined that noir is more a type of film making rather than film content. A film like "Double Indemnity is noir even tho we do have some happy in the ending (the daughter and boyfriend reconcile). Sunset Boulevard has Norma so bonkers she thinks things are happy and so they are. So, this noir is a happy noir. Gene Tierny is hypnotized by Jose Ferrer and he makes her do things to help him murder a former sucker who turned on him. Jose is so good at hypnosis he even google-eyes himself after gall bladder surgery so he can get about knocking off people and listening to records. Gene's husband is a shrink himself, but legitimate and somehow he connives that Jose is not on the level. He believes her, then he doesn't, she's nuts, she's not, oh dear, what to do, what to do. Cut to murder scene and Jose hiding in the wings with a guy he finally Jose tries to get Gene to cover for him while hubby and a cop are searching a closet. Failure and good wills out, happiness and joy, cut. This movie is so contrived, I wanted to hypnotize myself in to shutting it off but stayed to course to see how lousy a top notch cast/production could screw up. Pretty bad.

The famed Otto Preminger produces and directs this melodrama written by Ben Hect and Andrew Solt. A much over looked piece of Film Noir from 20th Century Fox starring the alluring Gene Tierney. Although her husband 'Bill' Sutton(Richard Conte)is a well known psychologist, Ann Sutton(Tierney)is a kleptomaniac, who is trapped into being treated by an unscrupulous hypnotist David Korvo(Jose Ferrer). Korvo is notorious for making his living by taking advantage of unsuspecting women and blackmailing them. Korvo will force Mrs. Sutton's involvement in a failed relationship's payoff and murder. Dirty dealing is going on for sure. And what is a girl to do while under a spell? WHIRLPOOL also features: Charles Bickford, Barbara O'Neal and Constance Collier. With no disrespect to the beautiful Tierney, a great director like Preminger can make a not-so-flamboyant cast look good.