adrianovasconcelos

Quite frankly, this is probably the weakest Losey film I have yet had to sit through. Admittedly, I watched the 84-minute long version of INTIMATE STRANGER, 11 minutes shorter than the recognized original version.

Perhaps that made a difference, but I have to say that beginning with the director credited as Joseph Walton, instead of Losey, there was something dishonest and off about this flick (though I know that both he and scriptwriter Koch were on the run from HUAC, Senator McCarthy and the commie witch hunting in the USA, I find it hard to accept that such concerns should make them use false names in a UK production).

Not seeming overly interested in the role, Richard Basehart plays Reggie Wilson, a movie executive who appears to have enough doubts about his memory as to question his doctor whether he might have more than one personality.

He keeps getting letters from one Evelyn Stewart slyly played by Mary Murphy, after an affair with Constance Cummings, all suggesting that he has betrayed his wife many more times. Meanwhile, his wife and his father in law are also investigating... which sounds cogent enough, except that the viewer is never unambiguously told that Wilson is schizo - or not.

With a very good British support cast on paper, pity that a great actor like Roger Livesey is so ineffectively used as to seem and sound wooden.

The version that I watched on Youtube was poor, faces unfocused, so I cannot rate cinematography any great shakes.

If you can get the uncut version, try it. The 84' version is best avoided. 6/10.

Readily do I admit that I am not familiar with Henry Levin's work, but certainly he directs I LOVE A MYSTERY with a sure touch and verve, and to that end he is comprehensively assisted by superior chiaroscuro cinematography by Burnett Guffey and editing from Aaron Stell.

The screenplay by Charles O'Neal off the original book by Carlton Morse bristles with sharp dialogue, and the punchlines are generally cleverly and effectively delivered - mainly thanks to a magnificently suave and chameleonic performance from George Macready, as the upper class gentleman who literally loses his head as the film starts. Looking smartly dressed, well combed, with a sinister scar on the right cheek, Macready dominates the film to a point that leaves me wondering why unmemorable Jim Bannon was given the male lead.

Nina Foch plays Macready's deceitful wife but it is lovely Carole Mathews that I found truly enticing and have kept in my memory files.

Good, imaginative film noir, definitely worth watching - at 69 minutes long, not a minute to spare! 7/10.

I know Richard Carlson better as an actor than as a director, and I am afraid THE SAGA OF HEMP BROWN does not explain why the thespian of solid performances in BEHIND LOCKED DOORS and THE SOUND OF FURY, for instance, should turn his hand to directing - an occupation at which he seems less gifted.

THE SAGA begins well enough, though Hemp Brown - anything to do with hemp, the drug? Nah, back in the 1850s they had never heard of it yet - begins his long list of stupid mistakes that allow Jed Givens (well played by John Larch) to turn the situation to his favor some three times during the flick.

So, believability is not THE SAGA's strongest asset - far from it, in fact - which reflects a poor screenplay by Bob Williams and Bernard Girard.

Cinematography by Philip Lathrop rates pedestrian at best, though occasionally you see some nice mountains in the background. Editing by Martinelli looks amateurish in the fisticuff sequences, where actors clearly avoid hurting each other.

Acting never rises above standard, though Beverly Garland is gorgeous, with a terrific pair of legs to boot.

Passable time waster oater. 6/10.