Uma Estranha Aventura

This is a Hitchcockian film that reflects well the Film Noir period of Hollywood. Suspense is high, and the audience is kept guessing right to the end about who might be the killer of the drunk good-time Charlie, who innocently invited a stranger in a bar in New York to stay in his apartment for the evening. Don't be fooled by the original name, though.

It is being aired on the premium classics channels under the a.k.a. name "Betrayed".

When Strangers Marry (1944)

Also known as, "Betrayed."

A rather tight, odd, compelling film. It's a B-movie, for sure, straight from William Castle territory (known for his sensational low-budget films). But it has Robert Mitchum in a strong early role, and Dean Jagger as a compelling bad guy. And the leading woman, played by the rather plain looking Kim Hunter, is good, too.

There are a lot of small elements that make this click along. For one, it's edited with utter economy. Then there is the slightly offbeat settings, including near the end a wonderful club scene with simple stride jazz, all African American. That three minutes is almost worth it alone, low key and stripped of glamour. A touch of Harlem, via Hollywood.

The plot, which has some conventional qualities, is also really odd at times, and it takes a minute to buy the idea of the title. That is, a naive woman marries a salesman she barely knows, and she hasn't seen him in a month. But he shows up just when a murderer has been making headlines, escaping from justice. You automatically connect the two, and yet there are tiny doubts. Maybe we're being set up.

The drama here is part of the pleasure—mostly night stuff, strong angles, hard light. And of course a trusting woman who slowly realizes there might be true terror on her hands. There's nothing like worrying for an innocent. Mitchum plays the good guy here, and he's young but already has his familiar style in place, which I assume is basically the real man. And he worries, too.

Jagger is actually pretty terrific. He plays an odd, difficult sort, covering up his apparent past (we aren't sure), but also showing real concern for this young woman, who is so utterly innocent. We eventually, slowly, feel for his situation. The turn of events at the end of the plot are a bit too much too fast, unfortunately. It undermines a solid progression up to then. Even so, watch this if you like the era, and crime movies. Well enough done. And fast.

Castle's third feature is an interesting case of talents in the bud. Previously he had been responsible for a bright Boston Blackie series entry with Chester Morris, and the less successful Klondike Kate (1943) with Tom Neal. When Strangers Marry (also known by the less accurate title of Betrayed) shows the director's increasing confidence as he ventures into the territory of the new film noir genre. He was also lucky in securing the services of a good cast: Kim Hunter, Dean Jagger and, in his first co-starring role, a young Robert Mitchum. One of the greatest noir stars, Mitchum is slimmer and perhaps more tentative here than he would be in later films, but still has enough presence and skill to make an impact, especially in the sweaty closing scenes. Already an experienced hand, Dimitri Tiomkin provided the music, and the result was an above average production from Monogram.

Having said that, there's a certain peremptoriness to the film, making it not entirely satisfactory. The noir style, which thrived on inexpensive sets and the economic use of shadow, cheap location shooting and the like, is evoked by Castle rather than expressed in any thorough fashion. Castle's next film The Whistler (1944), on yet another miniscule budget, was much more effective in evoking a continuous mood of paranoia and doom from the haunted Richard Dix. Some successful scenes apart, (Millie's first night in the hotel, her Lewtonish night walk, her innocent suspicions in Paul's apartment), the present film rather clumsily bolts noir elements on to a standard suspense plot - one vaguely reminiscent of Hitchcock's Suspicion of three years before - rather than to let them arise naturally from situation and character. An example is Millie's night of disturbed rest in the hotel. Husbandless in her neon sign-lit room, drowned in shadows and fear, she is distracted by the repeated blaring of nearby dancehall before taking a fraught phone call from Fred (Mitchum). This scene has no real plot purpose except to show her loneliness and distress, and the expressionist images seem over emphatic. On its own it is startling and dramatic, but nothing more, a pool of hard noir in a more naturalistic film. Even less convincingly, as if it had never happened Millie then makes no move to change her room later the next day, and the music never occurs again (it would have made an excellent punctuation for any later confrontation with Fred, for instance). As an actress, Kim Hunter makes an effective noir victim, even if her trusting fragility needs a willing suspension of disbelief. Powell and Pressburger obviously recognised such sensitivity even in a poverty row product like this, for they shortly cast her in such films as A Canterbury Tale, of the same year, and then in A Matter of Life and Death (1946).

A more serious plot flaw resides in the character of her husband Paul (Jagger). His personality and motives are shrouded in mystery throughout the film and, sadly, are not much clearer by the end. For a while this enigmatic man provides the narrative with a lot of useful suspense. The lack of resolution to his drama, while supplying the necessary twist as the truth is revealed, leaves the viewer with just too many questions to be comfortable. One misses even the rudimentary psycho-analysis which appeared in some noirs from this time, supposedly explaining the aberrant personality. Either elements of helpful exposition were jettisoned in the course of filming on a tight budget, or the writers (who included the excellent Philip Jordan, of Dillinger, Detective Story, Big Combo fame) thought they could get away with such a lacuna. The result is to reduce a happy ending to one where a married couple must still live on unresolved tensions, their determined contentment notwithstanding.

For those interested in trivia there are some private jokes in the film. A 'Mr King' is paged at the hotel (the film was produced by the King brothers). More amusingly, Millie hands over a deliberately misleading picture to the investigating detectives, saying 'This is the man you want'. It is director Castle. Such gallows humour, and self-publicity, would manifest itself in a series of gimmick films for which he is better known, starting in the 50's...

William Castle would of course go on to become best known for his gimmicky horror films; an oeuvre which includes the likes of House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler and Homicidal - but before then, he made a series of film noir/mystery thrillers; and When Strangers Marry is one of those. The film is only just over an hour long and I wouldn't be surprised to find that it was made as a 'B' feature for some bigger movie. However, in spite of that; the production values aren't bad and the cast all do well also. The plot is rather unlikely and focuses on the idea of a man and a woman getting married without really knowing each other. Millie Baxter is the female half of the equation; and she has been called, by her husband, to New York in order to meet with him. However, upon her arrival; he's not at the hotel, but by chance she is greeted by her old friend Fred Graham, who clearly carries a torch for her. Fred agrees to help her look for her husband and the pair begin tracking him across New York...but it soon becomes clear that there's something sinister surrounding his disappearance.

This was an early film appearance for Robert Mitchum, and it's clear that the producers knew he was going to be a star, although his role here is a secondary one. He leads the film from the back and William Castle never misses a chance to give the actor a close-up. It's not the actor's best performance by a long shot, but it shows some early promise. Kim Hunter is the female lead and her role gives her a chance to retread some of the same ground of her debut feature, Val Lewton's masterpiece The Seventh Victim. As you would expect considering the length of the film, the story is very tight and there is little in the way of diversions from the main plot line. The main plot itself is just about good enough to hold interest for the duration of the film, although I can imagine it would become more than a little tedious if the film were longer. The ending features a twist in the story; and for my money it's a rather convenient one that doesn't really make sense. There are some attempts to explain it and the holes it creates could be patched up...but it requires the viewer to suspend some disbelief. Still, there's worse ways to spend an hour and this is a decent film.

I wouldn't have believed that this film could run barely over an hour in length; in the course of its 67 minutes, it crams in more plot twists, emotional punch and sheer tension than recent blockbusters can manage in 200 or more, with never a wasted moment... but no lack, either, of aching silences and endless hours at night. As the innocent, idealistic young wife adrift in a city and world utterly alien to her, Kim Hunter carries the whole film with a performance of breathtaking conviction. She is scarcely off-screen from start to finish, as the character grows and matures both in confidence and desperation, and our assumptions about the outcome shift off-balance from one moment to the next. 'When Strangers Marry' is without a doubt her film. It's also an emotional roller-coaster, a gripping piece of noir -- and, unbelievably, a no-budget miracle shot in just seven days.

Robert Mitchum, in an early role, is a little wooden but crucially effective in the part of the former suitor who provides a steady shoulder for his one-time fiancée to lean on, and Dean Jagger is suitably elusive as the longed-for husband who is all but a stranger, but it is Hunter who really stands out here. I wasn't expecting much from this film but was absolutely swept away by it: an example above all of how to do a Hitchcock on Poverty Row.