Shadow of a Woman

Interesting but flawed mystery set in post-war California. A newly married woman who grows afraid of her newly met husband is a good premise for a movie and one that Alfred Hitchcock would have probably done better with. There is a doubt in this film whether the husband is indeed guilty of something…although there is no doubt that he is suspicious. Suspicion itself if not enough to salvage this film.

The writing could have been better. Some of the plot is too hard to swallow. We are cheated out of seeing what brought the newlyweds together. What kind of doctor is the husband? He claims he is not an MD and others say he worked in the entertainment field.

The acting could have been better. The wife accepts too much aberrant behavior from her odd husband and the folks he attracts. By opening the film with a flashback, we already know that the wife survives to tell the tale – thus robbing the story of some needed tension.

Not a terrible movie, but one that could have been better and might be if it were remade.

Okay slice of psychodrama and woman-in-danger flick. Still the script remains a rather uneasy mix of several elements. There're shadowy elements of noir, just emerging in '46, but mostly it's whether wife Brooke (King) can undo husband Eric's (Dantine) evil schemes and still survive. Can't say the plot's too original since Brooke marries Eric on short notice, not realizing his dark past. He poses as a doctor with unconventional methods, but just how "unconventional" is he. King looks good in 40's outfits, still I wish she (or director Santley) could have worked up more emotion. That would have heightened tension as the story winds down. But then the showdown is not what is ordinarily expected in this type movie. There's a good twist concerning the characters that I didn't see coming. So there are some surprises. Too bad that culminating fist-fight is none too plausible given Carl's (Alvin) gimpy leg. But dig that all- night diner that Joe (Erdman) presides over. It can compete with any of noir's many iconic diners.

All in all, the flick's an okay time-passer, but doesn't really pack the tension that's waiting there in the concept.

This is one of those postwar "shrink-anxiety" movies in which an >unscrupulous psychotherapist manipulates, blackmails, or robs >his patients. It's not bad of its type, though nothing out of >the ordinary. *But* it's the answer to a truly obscure trivia >question, because in an early scene, the villain and the heroine >have dinner in a restaurant where the band is playing "How >Little We Know", the Hoagy Carmichael song that Lauren Bacall >sang in "To Have and Have Not"!

I caught this movie on Saturday Night Noir. I wasn't planning on watching it, but it came on after NIAGARA and I left the television on while I was cleaning and getting ready for bed. It sucked me in! I really liked the atmosphere of the movie and the spooky old house. I liked the characters. I especially liked Andrea King and the little boy.

During the commercials I looked up the movie and saw that it wasn't much of a success when it came out. I was surprised because I didn't think it was that bad. I watch a lot of old movies (seldom ever watch anything new to be honest.) and I am sort of a hyper person who constantly keeps busy. I often half watch movies while doing another task like working (I work from home online) cleaning, cooking etc. A movie has to be pretty good to get me to actually sit down. I sat down for this movie. Was it the best acting I have ever seen? No, but the main character was likable enough and the story good enough, that I didn't care. It wasn't Oscar worthy, but most of the movies I like aren't. I liked this movie very much. It kept my attention and kept me entertained to the end.

Andrea King makes a mistake when she marries sinister alternative-medicine doctor Helmut Dantine. She realizes it pretty quickly, as we see in a story told from her point of view in flashback.

He seems like a truly loathsome person. It's hard, though, not to wonder if this movie was unwritten by the AMA. After all, not ALL people practicing alternative therapies, even back then are/were evil and/or quacks.

The most poignant part is the man's son, who is being held captive and being given a horrifyingly Spartan diet, ostensibly for his health.

That part will send chills up your spine. (If it knocks your spine out of quack, call a chiropractor.)