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“The Devil Makes Him Do It”

By Raymond Benson

The actor Ray Milland always presented himself on screen with a serious intensity. His Oscar-winning turn as an alcoholic in The Lost Weekend (1945) catapulted him into the upper ranks of Hollywood stardom in those years. He didn’t always appear in A-list pictures, though. Film noir and thrillers like The Big Clock and So Evil My Love (both 1948) featured Milland in what might be perceived as moonlighting roles, but he is nonetheless effective.

Such is the case with Alias Nick Beal, directed by frequent Milland collaborator, John Farrow. This is not a film noir, per se, but rather a thriller-cum-supernatural tale that borrows heavily from the Faust myth. And while Milland is the fire that energizes Nick Beal, it is third-billing Thomas Mitchell who is the protagonist of the story.

Mitchell is Joseph Foster,...

Alias Nick Beal

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1949 / 1.33:1 / 93 Min.

Starring Ray Milland, Audrey Totter

Cinematography by Lionel Lindon

Directed by John Farrow

The most sinister light comedian in Hollywood, Ray Milland was never more charming than when he was fixing to cut your throat. In John Farrow’s Alias Nick Beal, the actor dropped that two-faced mask to play an unambiguous villain—Nicholas Beal, a well-tailored but malevolent entity who makes his first appearance from behind a curtain of fog. As we begin to understand the tricky Mr. Beal, we realize that it isn’t fog swirling round his shoulders, it’s sulfur, billowing up from a pit of brimstone. Unfortunately Joseph Foster, an ambitious district attorney, understands it too late. When Foster decides to run for governor, Beal materializes to offer his own kind of campaign advice. Beal’s plan comes with a high price tag but he makes...