Heisse Spuren

Although French ,Jacques Bergerac made only two movies in his native land :"un homme se penche sur son passé" and a small part in "Marie-Antoinette Reine De France "where he is virtually unknown ; is it because of that that his name in the movie is Colbert (like Claudette ,who is famous both in the US and in her native land)?

"Fear no more " is an excellent Hitchcokian thriller , with a solid screenplay,and good acting ,particularly by Mala Powers ,lost in a nightmarish set -up : as soon as they arrive in her boss's house, there's no more letup as the story continues to build in suspense and intensity as the interventions become more and more overwhelming for the heroine -who spent some time in a mental hospital- who thinks she's losing her mind -and her only ally does too;Helena Nash's face recalls several hitchcock's villainesses (" the man who knew too much" 2nd version ,"notorious" )

And the screenwriters had not forgotten Hitchcock's lesson:expect the unexpected ; the sudden new developments are numerous all along the movie ,and the supporting characters are not cardboard ( the child's mother is not so petulant, Seymour is not so strong);but the movie belongs to Mala Powers ,whose facial expressions ran the gamut from pain to terror to rebellion.

FEAR NO MORE stars Mala Powers as Sharon Carlin, who finds herself caught up in a terrifying mystery full of murder and possible conspiracy. All this, arising from a simple, relaxing train ride to San Francisco.

When Sharon is joined by a seemingly helpful man named Paul (Jacques Bergerac), her life truly begins to spin out of control!

This is a wonderfully dark suspense thriller! The best of such films reveal the depraved / perverse side of human nature, usually resulting in its undoing. This movie is nearly perfect on that score...

Mala Powers mistakenly thinks she can FEAR NO MORE when Good Samaritan Jacques Bergerac finds her lying in the middle of the road after she escapes the policeman who arrested her for the murder of a woman on a train. He takes her to her place where there's another dead body and the couple get an even bigger surprise when they go to her employer's house and find the cop and the "murdered" woman there, insisting she's insane. Jacques doesn't know what to think when he's told Mala is also an escapee from a mental institution after having killed her previous employer. WTF?

Jacques Bergerac, handsome star of stage, screen, and tabloid scandal, was like a suave, Gallic version of Mike Henry whose thick French accent made him hard to understand half the time but it never mattered much since he was usually just eye candy anyway. As luck would have it, Jacques is called upon to react instead of act in this "twisty mystery" that's not half bad if you don't examine it too closely and, in its defense, you don't get the chance. Bottom line: it's a fast-moving B- movie held together by Mala Powers, a pretty good little actress, something I never noticed before.

Sometimes one runs across an Academy Award level performance in a B film and the performance doesn't get the attention it should have. Mala Powers was a remarkably talented actress who rarely got to show off what she was capable of doing, being used largely as decoration in things like fifties horror movies because, alas, she was quite attractive and in those days of Piper Laurie, Lori Nelson, et cetera, young attractive ladies were often cast in slop. But in this highly watchable effort Mala Powers gives what amounts to a complete acting class as she pours her heart into this stunning performance which has to be watched several times to be fully appreciated. Ms. Powers taught the Michael Chekhov school or style of acting professionally for many years but she could certainly show her students this work as evidence that she knew what she was talking about. In this acting theory, the Chekhov-influenced actor attempts to indicate through gestures a reflection of the interior or psychic anguish that is being felt. Movements and gestures must be true and effective and lively but not forced and inappropriate or unnecessarily exaggerated. If you just take isolated scenes and you know the plot, you can watch her emotional display and her gesturing and how organic and integrated they are. There are no false moves, no exaggerated gestures and no grandstanding. Ably supported by Jacques Bergerac as a troubled man who seems to find highly troubled women to court without even trying, Mala Powers keeps us wondering about her sanity until the rather feeble and highly implausible ending moments but it's well worth a watch for people who like to curl up and watch a pretty good mystery thriller with one performance that goes way beyond what one would expect and which shows the post-Slanislavski school (Slanikovsky was Chekhov's teacher) in all its raging glory. It's a must-see for serious acting students. I hope this review does not sound too artsy for the viewer-- it's one of the gutsiest performances in a film that I've seen!

A terse little thriller which both recalls 'North by Northwest' and 'Psycho' and anticipates 'Marnie' and 'Torn Curtain' shot by the Academy Award-winning cameraman Ernest Haller beginning at Union Station at night and ending in the Hollywood Hills the following morning.

The plot gets so convoluted you half expect it all to turn out to be a dream (or rather a nightmare) but when it finally does reach it's conclusion it does so satisfactorily.