Frayeur

Peter Cookson (Larry) is a student who needs money – his college fees and rent need paying and he can't do it. He goes to College Professor Francis Pierlot (Prof Stanley) who moonlights as a loan shark to help him out. Pierlot keeps all his money in his apartment in a safe and he's also a pretty unpleasant character. Is he unpleasant enough to be murdered? Yeah, probably…….but will his attacker get away with things…

This film zips along and keeps us watching as to whether a crime will go unpunished and things are done in a suspenseful manner. Unfortunately, the ending doesn't quite live up to expectations so view this film as a bit of fun. You'll see what I mean.

The programmer's a compelling noir except for the Production Code's required Hollywood ending. Up to that end point, however, the narrative amounts to a dark look into the ravages of psychological guilt. Larry's got a promising future as a med-student, but he also can't make tuition for his final school year. Dead broke, he's about to get tossed out of his fleabag apartment for non-payment. Desperate, Larry feels driven to murdering his pawn-brokering professor for the cash box riches he's hidden. Trouble is Larry's haunted by his crime, especially when fate delivers an unexpected publisher's check for an article he's written. Had he waited just one more day, he wouldn't have needed to murder for money. How cruel is fate and how relentless now are the cops.

Actor Cookson as Larry delivers an appropriately grim facade up to the end. To me, he, is an unknown performer, but subtly effective in the conflicted role. At the same time, there's something about him reminiscent of a sinister Tony Perkins. And how about the luscious Anne Gwynne. Her available presence makes his predicament that much worse. Then too, there's the magisterial Warren William as the head cop, taking a break from his ruthless pre-Code businessmen, e.g. Employee's Entrance (1933).

There're also some unsettling touches-- the onrushing train that crushes us all, the magic act that beheads without showing us recovery, the ominous black cat that awaits poor Larry. These are just some of the imaginative touches leading us to a bleak world where anything might happen.

Anyway, the programmer may be an atmospheric cheapo, but had the producers been able to complete the tale without the cop-out ending, it would also rise way above that meager status. So, when you see Larry cross the street at the near end, reach for the off-button. It's worth it.

I rated Fear (1946) 5/10. Pretty great B #noir. A lot of good visuals that are reminiscent of German films of the 20s and 30s. It's too bad it is a bit too trite and kind of like a zillion others to be amazing.

The dream (or nightmare) structure was a staple of the noir cycle; The Woman in the Window, Fear in the Night, and its remake Nightmare were some of the films that employed this device. Far from a cop-out, it was a way of packaging a rather subtle psychological insight: that our dreams expressed our conflicts between our superegos and our ids. (In a later film with noirish roots, Brian De Palma's Body Double, the "story" of the movie similarly sketched the protagonist's worst self-estimation, triggered by a claustrophobic episode.)

In Fear, a medical student (Peter Cookson) is on the brink of abandoning school because his money has run out; in frustration, he murders a professor who moonlights as a pawnbroker. Questioned by the police, he ill-advisedly spouts warmed-over Nietzsche like the effete killers in Hitchcock's Rope. Then, out of the blue, a scholarly periodical to which he submitted an article sends him a check for $1000 (!) -- the most implausible occurrence in the entire noir cyle. He grows more reckless, and suspicion continues to grow....

Fear was a low-budget Monogram programmer (clocking in at just over an hour) but looks a lot better, angled and shadowed like more lavish productions. It won't satisfy the literal-minded, but it's a decent enough way to while away a dark hour.

Well, in this one we have actress Beatrice Straight's husband (Peter Cookson) and Chris Pine's mother (Anne Gwynne) along with Warren William starring in Fear from 1946, directed by Alfred Zeisler.

This is an American retelling of Crime & Punishment until the final moments of the film.

Cookson is a broke medical student who kills a professor (Francis Pierlot) who doubles as a pawnbroker. However, he leaves the man's apartment in a panic, without taking any money. His guilt consumes him, and it doesn't help that two police detectives (William and Nestor Paiva) are on his case.

What is interesting about this film is that the director was from the German expressionist school and gives us a wonderful dream sequence involving railroad tracks and makes use of angles and shadows effectively.

As for the end of the film - it's a device used in so many films during that time. It's really a cop out, even if I did get a kick out of it.