Besuch um Mitternacht

Max Poulton (Stewart Granger) is a movie producer working on the French Riviera and having a tempestuous affair with his leading lady, Gina (Gianna Maria Canale). Max considers coming clean to his faithful wife, Carol (Donna Reed), but a mysterious man named Carliss (George Sanders), a detective from Scotland Yard, informs Max that Gina has been murdered. When Gina shows up to Carol's party alive, and then is murdered hours later, Max believes he has been set up by Carliss, who now claims that he was Gina's husband and not a detective.

A slick and stylish whodunit with many twists and turns stars Stewart Granger who is quite debonair and convincing as a film producer who is framed for the murder of an actress he once had a fling with. She threatens to reveal this to his wife. But of course, she gets stabbed, but not before George Sanders, in a typical slimy cad role, appears, kickstarting a cat and mouse situation. From the beginning, THE WHOLE TRUTH proves to be quite a compelling thriller, and it's a great to see Granger and Sanders play off against each other. Gianna Maria Canale as the vamp-like actress is really good in her role, and Donna Reed does well, too.

"The Whole Truth" breaks a number of murder mystery conventions, making it pleasantly unpredictable. It's almost Hitchcockian (in the lighthearted vein of "Rear Window"), with a good measure of humor, suspense, and romance.

While the film may lack megastars, its cast's performances are faultless. George Sanders is at his oily best in the film as Mr. Carliss, while Stewart Granger is a worthy leading man. Its brisk pace is complimented by a fantastic, upbeat jazz score, more typical of '60s spy films. Its aesthetic sense --cinematography, set direction-- isn't particularly fabulous, and it fails to capture the beauty of its French Riviera setting, but that fortunately doesn't detract from the delightfully suspenseful story.

Ultimately it's a fun bit of suspenseful entertainment --not iconic but definitely worth watching.

Film Producer Max Poulton is having an affair with his leading lady, the hot tempered beauty, Gina Bertini. During a party one night, Max is visited by a man named Carliss, who claims to be from CID, and explains that Gina had been murdered, Gina later pops up at the party, what possible reason could Carliss have for lying?

Before I give an opnio, I'll start by saying I adore mysteries from the fifties and sixties, especially those from Durbridge, Hitchcock and Wallace, this is very much a film in their style. Expect suspense and intrigue, and several scenes to leave you scratching your head.

I really enjoyed it, a slick and stylish mystery, considering the amazing cast it doesn't particularly feel high budget, but the story and acting more than make up for it. It's is beautifully filmed, there is also some wonderful location work to enjoy. I even enjoyed the accompanying music, it fits the film well.

After a fast paced, exciting opening, the mystery really does begin, there are so many curious occurrences, but it's well plotted, and ultimately it's very satisfying.

I was mainly looking forward to seeing Stewart Grainger, and he's excellent, but the film was stolen by George Sanders. The whole cast do a fine job, the scene in The Cafe where Poulton learns from Carliss exactly what's going on is great.

8/10.

Once again GEORGE SANDERS is a cad who tries to set up STEWART GRANGER for the murder of Sander's unfaithful wife. DONNA REED is the pretty female lead, Stewart's loving wife, who cannot believe Granger is capable of murder and stands by him, for the most part, during the proceedings.

All of it is given stylish B&W photography, posh settings, a fairly interesting jazz score for the background music, and a couple of intriguing twists--but nothing really puts it over as anything more than a below average thriller. A feeling of deju vu sets in not long after the opening credits with Granger intent on proving himself an innocent man framed for murder.

DONNA REED almost sleepwalks through the role of the good wife, never blinking more than an eyelash at whatever revelations are being made about her husband's conduct. STEWART GRANGER handles his role with his usual authority and skill and GEORGE SANDERS is competent enough as the scheming killer.

But ultimately, it's a time waster, with nothing new to offer in the realm of suspense.

Though leading man Stewart Granger has occasionally played the heel in a few films, the greatest screen cad of all George Sanders dominates this film playing a very wounded cad. He's a publisher of religious textbooks married to that most unlikely of mates, the voluptuous movie star Gianna Marie Canale who has used her feminine wiles to get to the top of the film business. Her latest conquest is producer Stewart Granger who is a bit down in the mouth since wife Donna Reed left him.

The Whole Truth has Sanders planning a most methodical revenge against his wife and against Granger whom he sees as the pinnacle of all the men Canale cheated on him with. Sanders gives an academy award winning performance, even better than the Oscar winning one he got for All About Eve with the French police.

Though The Whole Truth is far from All About Eve it's a decent enough thriller with Hollywood's greatest cad dominating the proceedings.