Keiner ging an ihr vorbei

Arlene Dahl does a nice turn as a cold, manipulative woman, who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Along the way she goes a bit off the deep end of the morality scale, and inflicts some unnecessary punishment on some over-optimistic suitors. The director, who was also the writer, Harris, does a pretty good job of story-telling and framing most of the scenes. The emotional battles we see raging on the screen are ones that many viewers will have experieinced at one time or another. This character could have been formulated, however, without the last-minute copout rationalization given by the story line. Despite thiis one convenient mechanism, the film still holds up pretty well as a solid soap.

This film almost gets to the finish line but for it's final minute. The end lacks a master touch but gets to that point with a creative plot. The Camera work is among the very best and drives the story almost flawlessly.

The opening scenes of this grim melodrama are reminiscent of the Barbara Stanwyck oldie, BABY FACE, about a girl's rise up the ladder of success by stepping on the men in her life as she seduces her way to the top. It's an old tale, done before in many films, and it gets fairly good treatment here.

ARLENE DAHL is convincing enough as the femme fatale every man is a sucker for, scheming her way to the top by doing whatever it is she can to pull the strings and push the right buttons. PHILIP CAREY is the one man who sees through all her manipulative ways, acting more or less as the woman's conscience by reminding her until the end of the story of the sins she commits.

Seems that she was badly abused in her youth in a gang rape situation and has never been able to love men since. Dahl plays the role in a gutsy way and it's probably one of her best acting jobs in an offbeat dramatic role.

Made at Columbia, in England, after she left MGM, it demonstrates that she has a range that was never tapped by her home studio. The sensible ending leaves open the question of whether she and Carey will ever be able to sort out the issues that kept them apart.

This is an amazing film for its very dense direction bringing the best out of a rather cheap story and some totally unknown B-actors, Herbert Marshall being the only film star among them and playing the shabbiest role. Arlene Dahl in the lead reminds very much of Kim Novak in films like "Vertigo" , the same kind of superior beauty with something wrong about her, while Michael Goodliffe, somewhat reminding of Trevor Howard, stands for the passion that turns on the drama. Philip Carey as the male lead succeeds in makíng a very complicated part and character quite convincing and likeable, the one who saves some human dignity in a pit of human pitfalls.

It's as a psychological drama that the film is highly interesting, modern and timeless. Almost everyone sees that there is something wrong about Kathy in her cruel disdain of men while at the same time everyone must fall for her, but no one can understand what the trouble is, least of all herself, or if she does, she keeps a splendid poker face and never loses her control, although, as it proves, she is constantly walking on a razor's edge by an abyss. There are also parallels to Polanski's "Repulsion", it's a related case, but here you get the full story, although not until the end. You are left hanging in the end with everything lost but hope, which is no more than a faint light that no one can know if it will survive.

Ken Hughes later made other excellent films, especially "The Trials of Oscar Wilde", and this is no less impressing in its extremely smooth psychological direction where nothing is out of the context, like a perfect jig-saw puzzle with no pieces missing and all fitting perfectly.

Arlene Dahl was a beautiful woman. She doubtless still is. She had a cold look, which works for this movie. She plays a gold-digger with little heart. The character seems to be icy physically, too: She likes what men can get her but romance and sex do not appear to be among her interests.

Herbert Marshall, for decades a leading man, ends up in this too. He plays one of the men she uses.

There are similarities between this and "Baby Face" with Barbara Stanwyck. That movie packs a real wallop, though. This one is chic but tepid.