Nightmare

Brian Donleavy is broke and at loose ends until his ship leaves for America, so he enters a private home to make himself some ham and eggs. The owner, Diana Barrymore, discovers him, and he's about to leave without a fuss, when she asks him to remove the body of her husband from his office. He's got a knife in his back. Donleavy disposes of it, but when he returns, Miss Barrymore high-hats him... until she asks him to remove the body, which is back where it had been. At this point, the police break in the front door, and the two flee the premises.

It's a great start to the movie from a story by Phillip MacDonald, but it soon turns into a retread of THE 39 STEPS, with a trip to Scottish mansion. Donleavy offers a solid performance as usual, but Miss Barrymore seems more confused and withdrawn than her role calls for... and that seems inconsistently written. She does photograph beautifully with George Barnes handling the cameras.

Brian Donlevy (Daniel) breaks into a stranger's house for a meal during a blackout. That stranger is Diana Barrymore (Leslie) and when she stumbles across him sitting down eating a meal in her kitchen, she asks if he is a burglar. His answer – "I might be". This guy is one cool customer. He has even taken his jacket off and hung it up. However, he is lured into a Nazi plot once he agrees to help Diana get rid of a body that she has upstairs. The film plays out as a Hitchcock-like spy thriller with a cast of familiar faces.

I enjoyed this film. It started off as a potentially spooky nightmare film and I had no idea where it was going, especially once Diana reveals her second discovery to Donlevy. Woah! The film keeps you watching as it keeps flowing and the lead actors are both likable. Donlevy provides the film with a funny ending. We all want to know what's in that bottle. Ha ha.

Back to the film's beginning. I had a friend who once walked into a stranger's house and helped himself to breakfast. When the resident girl came down to breakfast and got a surprise, she called her mother downstairs and they all introduced themselves. It was in the countryside and he'd got the wrong house. My friend then decided that he fancied the mum and started to peel potatoes for her with the ultimate aim of pinching her bottom. Donlevy has that same kind of cheek when it's meal-time. So, remember to hang your jacket up when you next sit down for a meal.

When the story begins, Daniel (Brian Donlevy) meets a woman in London who is in distress. Leslie (Diana Barrymore) has found a dead body in her home and asks this total stranger to get rid of the body. And sane person would get the police...but inexplicably Daniel does exactly what the woman asks. Later, when he returns to the flat, she pretends to not know him...and he is naturally miffed. She also acts rather superior...which is odd because she is appears to be a murderer! Soon, another body turns up in her place...stabbed just like the last one. Now you'd REALLY think a sane person would get the police, but instead the pair run off!! Does any of this make sense? No...not in the least. Eventually, their paths lead to spies and sabotage!!

I think there are two main problems with the film. First, parts of the script simply make no sense. Second, Diana Barrymore was terrible. Every line she delivered sounded haughty and angry...and there was nothing subtle about her acting at all. Clearly she had not inherited her famous father's talents! Most of the reviews are very positive...but I just couldn't get past Barrymore's acting and bad writing.

Another one of those "wrongfully accused man and woman on the run" thrillers, notable only as one of the few starring vehicles for John Barrymore's daughter Diana. Brian Donlevy is slightly miscast as a down-on-his-luck gambler who inexplicably gets involved with a woman who may have killed someone. Also Nazis because 1942. It's all rather muddled and hard to follow or care. Donlevy's dialogue makes me think his part was written with Humphrey Bogart or maybe Alan Ladd in mind. For her part Diana Barrymore has a bland screen presence and spits out her lines like they taste as bad as they sound. Supporting cast is ok. Slow pace with no memorable scenes. Not a particularly good picture.

1942's "Nightmare" was a higher budget 'B' from Universal, who were hoping that name value would make a star out of top billed Diana Barrymore (John's daughter, Drew's aunt). Unfortunately, her obvious talent failed to translate into box office success, quickly retiring from the screen, only to star in tabloid headlines for the rest of her unhappy life (dead at age 38 of a drug overdose in 1960). This particular feature may be her finest showcase, with a most unorthodox leading man in 40 year old Brian Donlevy, whose character, an American stranded in London, raises nary an eyebrow when she asks him to dispose of a dead body in her upstairs study. We later find that the corpse is that of her long unseen husband (Henry Daniell), who turned up on her doorstep in time to be murdered by persons unknown, but not before offering up a dying clue with his last breath. Understandably fearing that she might be arrested, and puzzled when the corpse winds up back in the study after being safely transported across town hours before, she ends up swiping a car so they can escape to Scotland to visit her wealthy cousin (Gavin Muir). Brian Donlevy proved to be an underrated leading man, but did fine work here, and in Fox programmers "Half Angel," "Born Reckless," and especially "Midnight Taxi." Henry Daniell is criminally wasted, but other small roles are well played by such familiar performers as Arthur Shields, Hans Conreid, John Abbott, and Ian Wolfe (playing a nastier butler than usual). Holds up fairly well until the end, but definitely NOT a horror film, despite its status among Universal's SHOCK! package of genre titles issued to television in the late 50's (Pittsburgh's CHILLER THEATER never showed it, but Minneapolis' HORROR INCORPORATED did).