Der Fluch des Wahnsinns

Recently viewed this on TCM and was captivated. What was going to happen? Why was Barbara Stanwyck sneaking about? Where was her husband? What had happened??

Errol Flynn also stars, and he was good. Don't usually see him in many suspense films that I remember.

Barbara S. was amazing as usual. Believable - and wouldn't want to mess with her - but she's met her match with Flynn.

I thought a very good plot from which I have seen picked up in several other more recent movies. A solid "8" from this reviewer. I think you'll be entertained.

Cry Wolf is directed by Peter Godfrey and adapted to screenplay by Catherine Turney from the novel of the same name written by Marjorie Carleton. It stars Errol Flynn, Barbara Stanwyck, Geraldine Brooks and Richard Baseheart. Music is by Franz Waxman and cinematography by Carl E. Guthrie.

Effective old dark house mystery picture boasting star appeal and class from Guthrie and Waxman, Cry Wolf is an enjoyable failure. The story finds Babs Stanwyck as Sandra Marshall, who turns up at a creaky old mansion investigating the death of her husband. Met with a frosty reception by the lord of the manor, Mark Caldwell (Flynn), it's not long before Sandra is neck deep in intrigue and suspicious behaviours.

Flynn and Stanwyck aren't asked to stretch themselves for this plot, in fact Flynn garnered unfair criticism for his portrayal of the shifty Mark Caldwell (wooden/miscast etc). Unfair because the character is meant to be restrained and sombre, keeping his cards close to his chest, you can certainly see why Flynn took the part, it was a chance to tackle something away from the flamboyant roles he was so iconically known for.

As the main characters move through the standard plotting of such fare; what's the secrets of the house, what is going on in the locked room? And etc, the house is the major player. Again it's standard stuff, a place of creaky doors, shadowy rooms, ominous clock chimes and things that go bump in the night. Guthrie (Backfire/Caged/Highway 301) brings his awareness of film noir visual conventions to the piece, where all the night time sequences carry atmospheric punch. While Waxman at times scores it like a Universal Studios creature feature, which is just dandy, the string arrangements delightfully menacing.

Some back projection work is poor, and although the twisty finale worked for me, I personally can understand it being a disappointment to others, while there's definitely the feeling of wasting the stars hanging over proceedings. Yet there's a nice old fashioned feel to the movie that charms, even if the stars and technical purveyors are bigger than the material handed to them. An enjoyable failure, indeed. 6/10

I wanted to add to the other reviews. I think Flynn's character was strongly based on his own father, a scientist (the film makes a point of saying he is a scientist of some note). Stanwyck's character had some of Flynn's mothers characteristics. And during the film Flynn alludes to a family ancestor who was a rable rouser and sailed about the world and married a French showgirl who was world renowned, a very possible reference to Flynn himself , he loved to sail and certainly was a rable rouser , and Flynn's first wife ( a popular French actress).Then the grim joke about her being poisoned was a snide aside (Flynn was paying alimony ever since the divorce). It seemed like they let Flynn play a part very similar to his own reserved scientist father and paired him with the head strong adventurous woman who resembled his mother.

What could have been a great "old dark house" kind of thriller is instead a tepid melodrama hampered by a rambling script with a not-too- believable twist and a weak ending. On the plus side, it gives Barbara Stanwyck a chance to play the kind of feisty woman we like to root for--especially when she's climbing athletically over rooftops and down dumbwaiter chutes in order to get to the roots of a family mystery. Errol Flynn, still handsome in tweed jacket and smoking a pipe, lends distinction to a poorly written role. But in his confrontation scenes with Stanwyck she comes out the winner--full of fire and fury while he remains bland and aloof. Geraldine Brooks excels as Errol's tormented niece who believes her uncle is up to something sinister. A big help is Franz Waxman's strong background music that creates the right note of suspense. Richard Basehart is wasted in a small, poorly written role that gives him no substance at all. Despite all the flaws, an interesting and absorbing mystery to watch on a rainy day if only for the sheer pleasure of watching Stanwyck race around in pursuit of the truth. The solution, as noted before, is a letdown and the ending much too abrupt. Ah well, you can't have everything...

"Cry Wolf" isn't the greatest or the worst movie I've ever seen, but overall I enjoyed it. Despite what other viewers have said, I LIKED the ending. It was genuinely surprising, and when I thought it over, it all added up and was satisfying. I enjoyed Barbara Stanwyck's athletic performance -- especially when she pulled herself up and down a dumbwaiter! It was fun,too, to watch Errol Flynn play a sinister gentleman against type. In her debut film, Geraldine Brooks was awful but watchable doing a bad imitation of Ann Blyth in "Mildred Pierce." The talented Richard Basehart was awful, too -- but he later gave some classic performances, and it was fun to compare the difference. There are far worse ways to spend 83 minutes of your life, and I'm glad I watched this sleeper.