Quand le rideau tombe

Broadway diva Valerie Stanton (Rosalind Russell) is in love with Michael Morrell. She wants to retire. Her producer Gordon Dunning refuses to let her quit and blackmails her into staying. She hits him over the head in the struggle. He's dead and actress Marian Webster becomes the prime suspect as police Captain Danbury investigates the case.

The opening is great. The story needs to move forward after that and not backwards. I don't like the flashbacks. It's not necessary to understand the minutia of her relationship with Gordon. Quite frankly, the opening reveals all the important parts and Gordon says it all in his rant. The movie is still interesting as it follows the investigation and Valerie's moral dilemma in a paranoid thriller. She could try harder to cover up the incident. It's just that the flashbacks really saps the intensity out of any thriller elements early in the movie.

This is a highly entertaining film with a great cast. Its major flaw is that Rosalind Russell was not willing to go full out villian. It was made by her production company and I assume she had her character dilluted.

It is still a fun watch.

The murder mystery genre is carried out here well by some capable, veteran Hollywood regulars. While this was not Rosalind Russell's high point (that occurred in the film "Auntie Mame" ten years after this one was made), she does acquit herself well as the diva restless to go her own way and thus finds herself in a trap of her own making. The police detective captain played by Sydney Greenstreet is right up there with his unforgettable presence in the "Maltese Falcon" but here he parries the dialog with oiled charm in contrast to La Russel's soigne bearing of hateur a la the 'grande dame' actress she portrays. While the cast is uniformly good, and the story told in an unconventional way, it is not these things that stand out for me, since such a setting of a murder in a theatre was done before in such as the "G-string Murders" and others.

What does stand out for this film, however, is the background of a truly sumptuous theatre that you would swear was the real thing. Since I write about the draperies and passementeries used in theatres (as a member of the Theatre Historical Society of America), I was anxious to learn just where this monument with its gorgeous textiles was, and inquired of the American Film Institute through their web site. Their librarian graciously replied from their "AFI Catalog of Feature Films" that the theatre building was in fact a very elaborate set (said to be the largest and most elaborate to date)! They quote articles in the "Hollywood Reporter" of 1947 and '48 as their source of the details of this 1-1/2 million dollar film. The multi-swaged Grand Drapery and the stage's House Curtain with its 3-foot appliqued border above a 2-foot fringe is but an example of the gorgeous textiles they had created for presumably just this one use, along with all the elaborate decor and detailing. The attention to detail was so great that it is still hard to believe that one is not in a real building! Such work today would command many millions more dollars, but I guess that Hollywood could not arrange to get a suitable New York 'Broadway' theatre for rent for the filming at the right price and time, so they splurged on this set which is among several other good ones in the film. For those who appreciate movie settings as much as the story and acting, this one will please you.

"The Velvet Touch" is a wonderful film starring Rosalind Russell as a glamorous Broadway star, Valerie Stanton, who accidentally kills her boyfriend-producer.

The movie's dialogue is sophisticated and so is its New York theater atmosphere - the parties, the clothes, the rivalries, and the lush theater itself which looks like the real thing, but is an elaborate set. Russell's costars include Sydney Greenstreet, Claire Trevor, and Leon Ames. Greenstreet's portrayal of the clever police detective is excellent, and you can see where he would get on Russell's frayed nerves. Trevor, as a rival of Valerie's, gives a marvelous performance. There is a clever juxtaposition between the film's plot and the play in which Valerie Stanton is appearing, Hedda Gabler. I've always considered this movie an unsung gem.

Higher production values and A list actors results in both an improvement and degradation of this so-called noir. So many great noir films possess the similar elements. But with the big budget and ambitious productions here, the tension, darkness and grit give way in this film to light, romance and big stage productions. Sure there are things to like in this movie, but let's be honest and not call it noir. Just because there is a murder, it gets lost in dream sequences which quickly abandon the crime in service of the backstory. The investigation into the murder - which often brings the real tension to noir - doesn't get started until 45 minutes into the film - thank goodness for Sydney Greenstreet. Serviceable mystery, yes. Film noir, nope.