L'oeil caché

Hidden Eye, The (1945)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Sequel to Eyes in the Night has the blind detective (Edward Arnold) trying to track down a killer who has murdered four people in a rich family. I haven't seen the original film but this one here is a pretty solid entertainment but we've seen this type of mystery countless times before. Having the lead detective blind was a new angle on the story and his ways of solving a crime without sight was rather interesting. The best performance in the film has to go to his dog, Friday, who is constantly entertaining. Arnold is also very good in his role and really sells himself as being blind. The film only runs 70-minutes and at times it drags along but there's certainly worst out there.

I love old B-detective films such as Charlie Chan, The Saint, Boston Blackie and The Falcon. In addition to these very popular series, MGM tried to make a string of films starring veteran character actor Edward Arnold as a blind ex-police captain who now investigates crimes on his own. Unfortunately, while I really liked the first two films of the series, there must not have been much interest as MGM killed the series and only ended up making the two.

What a shame, as I found them charming and innovative--something that is lacking in most films of the genre. I liked Arnold's easygoing manner (though my wife felt he laughed too much) and his guide dog, Friday, was a great sidekick--practically stealing the show. The plots were creative, the supporting acting very good and the production values many steps above lower budget Bs. About the only thing that was a deficit was the use of stunt doubles. All too often, it was VERY obvious that it was not the rotund and middle-aged Arnold but a younger and thinner man with significantly more hair! In this regard, it reminded me a lot of the work done on the original STAR TREK television series--where it was obviously NOT Kirk, Spock or McCoy in the action scenes.

By the way, if you get a chance, try seeing the first film (EYES IN THE NIGHT). It's really funny watching Arnold's character deliberately trying to be super-obnoxious and irritating!

Blind detective Duncan Maclain is asked for help by a young woman whose fiancé is the prime suspect in a murder. This is the second Duncan Maclain movie starring Edward Arnold. The first, Eyes In the Night, was released in 1942. I'm not sure about the reason for the gap between the movies. If MGM was trying to launch a series of B detective movies around this character, one would assume they would have produced them quickly. Maybe this was filmed years before it was released. I don't see that info here on IMDb but that makes more sense than them waiting three years to make a follow-up to a B programmer that wasn't a huge hit to begin with. There's something very odd about the opening minutes of this one. The audio appears to be dubbed. The actors' lips are in sync with the words but it still seems off. You'll see what I mean.

Edward Arnold is always worth a look. Reliable Ray Collins leads a so-so cast backing up Arnold. The weakest part is Frances Rafferty, whose overwrought performance borders on hysterics half the time. It's amusing at first but quickly annoying. She's very pretty, though. Audrey Totter has one small scene but it's a great one. Not a bad B detective movie. The pace is good and there's a nice amount of humor sprinkled throughout. The mystery itself isn't much of a mystery as the killer is revealed to be the most obvious suspect about halfway into the movie. I really wanted it to be the fiancé because his scenes with Rafferty were insufferably corny. If you're a fan of these kinds of movies I'm sure you'll enjoy this enough. Definitely not a waste of an hour so give it a shot.

Capt. Maclain, the blind detective, is called in on a murder case by a young lady of his acquaintance, Frances Rafferty. She is about to be married to Barry Gifford; they've tried twice before, but her father wants them to wait. They hope that three times will be lucky. Father seems to be agreeable over the telephone, and he sets up a seven pm appointment for the two to come and talk it over. But when Barry gets there just a few seconds early, he finds his prospective father in law dead at his desk. He's been murdered and the suspicion of the police has fallen on young Barry. For the sake of young love, we hope that Maclain can prove the police wrong before the picture ends, but it looks very bad for Barry.

This is not an exceptional film, but it's better than average for a forties B and the acting holds up very well. The plot is a good one, although the number of good suspects is quite small and the film doesn't cheat. But I think that even if you do figure out who the murderer is early on, the situations and the well acted characters will keep you entertained.

Edward Arnold was an excellent actor, and all films with him are outstanding for his contribution. He made two films as the blind detective Maclaine with his good dog Friday, and although rather short, they are both excellent, the second even better than the first. There is nothing cheap or artificial in the construction of the intrigue, which eventually keeps constantly increasing in excitement and suspense, and you have to worry at times about the detective, especially when his dog gets into trouble. Ray Collins is abominable as the corrupt godfather-like guardian, and it is impossible not to fall into the trap of suspecting the wrong person of all these family murders. This is great entertainment for a chamber drama of murder at home.