The Prowler

Van Heflin is "The Prowler" in this 1951 noir directed by Joseph Losey and also starring Evelyn Keyes. Heflin plays a bitter cop named Webb who meets the lonely Susan (Keyes), whose husband works at night on the radio, when he investigates a prowler at her house. He returns, ostensibly to check up on her, and they discover they're from the same part of the country. Soon, they're involved in a love affair that has serious implications.

Losey was a hit or miss director. He was blacklisted and made several films starring Dirk Bogarde in Europe, including the amazing The Servant and a big miss, Modesty Blaise. Here he's on the money with a suspenseful, well done film. Van Heflin is brilliant as Webb, who finally sees a chance at making his dreams come true, and Keyes is wonderful as Susan, disappointed in her marriage.

"The Prowler" was restored by UCLA, and for some reason, when Christopher-Jan Horrocks discussed it on TCM, he described the story incorrectly.

Frankly, I thought this film had a couple of plot problems, but I can't go into them without giving the film away. The event that the plot hinges on is certainly a daring one for those days. I'll just say that the two main characters would have had to have been Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for a total stranger to have realized what he realized immediately.

Well worth checking out.

As the story unfolds we see the true personalities of the main charcters come clearly through the film screen. There is the beautiful wife Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) who married a successful but older radio host who provides for his wife Susan but keeps her more as another prized possession under lock and key, than as his loving wife. When a prowler is spotted outside Susan's window she calls the police and two (2) policeman show up one of whom is a rugged looking unmarried and very single policeman named Webb Garwood (Van Heflin).

Officer Webb Garwood is immediately attracted to the pretty and helpless Susan, who spends her evenings alone listening on the radio to her older husbands well known radio broadcasts. So Webb makes some more than frequent late evening and impromptu visits to check up on the pretty Susan who falls prey to Webb's flattery and promises of a better life if she agrees to leave her wealthy husband for a beat cops salary.

The story unfolds slowly with lust and unfulfilled dreams becoming the films main focus with the third wheel becoming Susan's absent husband so Webb decides he has to make a plan to free Susan so that the two of them can have an open relationship.

As with any good plan there are flaws with Webb's own plan and we realize that the noose is closing in on these two adulterous lovers. Greed, lust and looking for a short cut to happiness can only end up in a bad result and this film is a good example of a film noir that works quite well and will hold your attention throughout.

I give it a solid 8 out of 10 rating.

Have seen a pattern in my recent classic film viewings. That being that many of them have been very good, if not quite outstanding, and interesting, with a lot of critical praise given to them but also not very well known today. Another pattern is high expectations, due to loving the genres and talented casts and crews. 'The Prowler' is another one of those films that had a promising premise and have liked Van Heflin in other things, his role here also sounded really intriguing.

'The Prowler' is mostly good with many truly great things, if not quite classic status. It does start out that way but it should have kept that all the way through. While it is understandable as to why it won't connect to some, the praise it has gotten here is every bit, perhaps even more, as understandable. While not loving 'The Prowler' and feeling that there are definitely better films in the genre, it is underseen and impresses in many ways.

It is very beautifully and atmospherically shot and tightly edited, although the sets are on the sparse side. While it is not exactly lavish or expensive-looking, 'The Prowler' also doesn't look cheap. The music looms ominously without being intrusive. Joseph Losey, have appreciated his output ever since his wonderful 'Don Giovanni', directs with a sure and stylish hand, that indicates somebody who knew what he was doing. The script on the most part is taut and intelligent, and it was amazing too at how daring and subversive it was for back then.

Did find the story engrossing on the whole, especially in the first half which is full of intrigue and suspenseful atmosphere. Especially the ending. The character writing fascinates, really liked its nuance and that it was not all black and white. Heflin is outstanding here, it's one of his best performances and he was seldom this nuanced and haunting. Evelyn Keyes doesn't look ill at ease, even with her suitably vulnerable body language and underplays beautifully yet also with the appropriate amount of steely edge. John Maxwell is rock solid support.

By all means, 'The Prowler' could have been better than it was. While Heflin and Keyes are spot on individually, the central chemistry felt on the bland and underdeveloped side. The ending aside, too much of the second half isn't quite as focused as the first, it loses tautness and parts do veer on implausible.

Also found myself frustrated by some of Keyes' character's behaviour and decisions, where they didn't make sense or seem silly.

Concluding, not a classic but recommended despite its unevenness. 7/10.

John Maxwell is appropriately cast as 'Bud'. A salt of the earth cop, who has never fired his gun throughout a long impeccable career. Off duty, he lives a quiet, exemplary life with wife Katherine Warren. If he ever heard The Rolling Stones' 'Rocks Off, ' he would have assumed it was a song about geology. Collecting ancient rocks from ghost towns is his spare time passion. In stark contrast, his partner Van Heflin is an opportunist womanizer. The victim of too many bad breaks and a life-long member of 'The World Owes me a Favour Club'.

Answering a call about a prowler at the home of Evelyn Keyes, Maxwell offers practical advice about security, whilst Heflin practically moves in. Returning initially to check on Keyes' safety, an unusual - perhaps unique affair ensues. Keyes much older husband is always present; on air, performing his schmaltzy, cheesy, cornball radio show. Though it provides the ideal set up for their deceit, Heflin finally turns off the set, refusing to allow rubbish radio to ruin their racy romance.

When the dinosaur dee-jay grows suspicious, Heflin calls for a cooling off period. He retires to his spartan apartment, where, bearing an uncanny resemblance to The Royle Family's Craig Cash, he stares blankly into space. Does his vacant, vapid facial expression disguise profound perceptions permeating his punctilious brain....or is he merely musing over a hot dog which he ate in 1946? At this point Keyes bursts in, unlocking his libido and reigniting the relationship. If only her dull, ageing husband, hardly the future of rock'n'roll, the cause of her unhappiness and the barrier to Heflin's future were out of the way.

In the kind of plot where one lie leads to another, then another, followed by a porky of gargantuan proportions, the desperate couple head for Calico, one of Maxwell's ghost towns, uninhabited for many years. Though, apparently Poco knew a lady from there! Heflin has become so entrenched in his own web of corruption and crime that life is like attempting to swim through an ocean of treacle, whilst carrying Cyril Smith.

Not a classic, but a rarely seen noir, The Prowler deserves further investigation. Hope I've sold it to yez.

The most unsettling thing about THE PROWLER is the way Van Heflin inhabits the role of a corrupt police officer who worms his way into the life of an innocent woman (Evelyn Keyes), a bored housewife trapped in a loveless marriage with a jealous older man.

From the very first scene, we know that Heflin is going to set a trap for this woman and that eventually she'll succumb to his dubious charm merely to break the cycle of loneliness she's used to. The plot sustains interest up until the cliffhanger of an ending in which all hell breaks loose.

But along the way, there are several glaring faults in the script. Keyes falls in love much too quickly, needing him at her side so desperately that he concocts an accidental shooting to get rid of her hubby. And from then on, her motivations for lying at the inquest are shaky, to say the least. Credibility begins to slip as we lurch toward a very effective ending which won't be revealed here.

In the meantime, the performances are professional, with John Maxwell excellent as a loyal friend and Wheaton Chambers fine as a reluctant doctor. Joseph Losey gets all the suspense he can out of the script, but in the end the bleak low-key photography and sparse sets gives it the feel of a hurried programmer rather than an A-film.