L'oeil caché

Courtsey of MGM's prolific/proficient second feature output unit, comes this sequel to Fred Zinnemann's debut feature 'Eyes In The Night', about a visually-impaired sleuth. This time around, the technical team is unfortunately less resourceful than their protagonist who is busy, with the aid of his faithful guide dog, trying to clear an innocent man of murder.

The replacement of B-frisson chills with chuckles is a miscalculation on this outing, and stereotype B-movie characterisations abound from vulnerable love interest to seedy villains. The story's gritty, 'urban' settings, replete with dark alleyways and disused warehouses, are never exploited to the full effect of their classic noir trappings.

The proceedings are all lighthearted enough if a little too genial. However, although there is some inevitable sentiment, the film is surprisingly unpatronising in its treatment of our blind hero. All in all it's a disappointing sequel, but not an hour-and-a-bit wasted.

Capt. Maclain, the blind detective, is called in on a murder case by a young lady of his acquaintance, Frances Rafferty. She is about to be married to Barry Gifford; they've tried twice before, but her father wants them to wait. They hope that three times will be lucky. Father seems to be agreeable over the telephone, and he sets up a seven pm appointment for the two to come and talk it over. But when Barry gets there just a few seconds early, he finds his prospective father in law dead at his desk. He's been murdered and the suspicion of the police has fallen on young Barry. For the sake of young love, we hope that Maclain can prove the police wrong before the picture ends, but it looks very bad for Barry.

This is not an exceptional film, but it's better than average for a forties B and the acting holds up very well. The plot is a good one, although the number of good suspects is quite small and the film doesn't cheat. But I think that even if you do figure out who the murderer is early on, the situations and the well acted characters will keep you entertained.

Hidden Eye, The (1945)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Sequel to Eyes in the Night has the blind detective (Edward Arnold) trying to track down a killer who has murdered four people in a rich family. I haven't seen the original film but this one here is a pretty solid entertainment but we've seen this type of mystery countless times before. Having the lead detective blind was a new angle on the story and his ways of solving a crime without sight was rather interesting. The best performance in the film has to go to his dog, Friday, who is constantly entertaining. Arnold is also very good in his role and really sells himself as being blind. The film only runs 70-minutes and at times it drags along but there's certainly worst out there.

Blind detective Duncan Maclain is asked for help by a young woman whose fiancé is the prime suspect in a murder. This is the second Duncan Maclain movie starring Edward Arnold. The first, Eyes In the Night, was released in 1942. I'm not sure about the reason for the gap between the movies. If MGM was trying to launch a series of B detective movies around this character, one would assume they would have produced them quickly. Maybe this was filmed years before it was released. I don't see that info here on IMDb but that makes more sense than them waiting three years to make a follow-up to a B programmer that wasn't a huge hit to begin with. There's something very odd about the opening minutes of this one. The audio appears to be dubbed. The actors' lips are in sync with the words but it still seems off. You'll see what I mean.

Edward Arnold is always worth a look. Reliable Ray Collins leads a so-so cast backing up Arnold. The weakest part is Frances Rafferty, whose overwrought performance borders on hysterics half the time. It's amusing at first but quickly annoying. She's very pretty, though. Audrey Totter has one small scene but it's a great one. Not a bad B detective movie. The pace is good and there's a nice amount of humor sprinkled throughout. The mystery itself isn't much of a mystery as the killer is revealed to be the most obvious suspect about halfway into the movie. I really wanted it to be the fiancé because his scenes with Rafferty were insufferably corny. If you're a fan of these kinds of movies I'm sure you'll enjoy this enough. Definitely not a waste of an hour so give it a shot.

Slick programmer from MGM. It's not exactly a whodunit, though the narrative starts out that way. Rather, the plot becomes a battle of wits between Capt. Maclain (Arnold) and the killer. Seems someone's knocking off members of the Hampton family, leaving daughter Jean (Rafferty) in danger. Now blind ex-cop Maclain, along with police dog Friday and comedic helper Marty, have to figure things out before more bloodletting.

Arnold's Maclain has to be the most genial cop in movie annals: he even manages a chuckle in the direst circumstance. I guess that shows acceptance of his impaired condition. Good to see one of my old-time heartthrobs Frances Rafferty looking gorgeous as usual. And that's Leigh Whipper briefly as the colored butler. Too bad he doesn't get to show the soul he shows in the classics Of Mice and Men (1939) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943). Once you see him there, you don't forget. And, of course, there's Friday who should get a canine Oscar for his winning performance.

Anyway, the programmer's mainly a personality detective show, slickly done by MGM's accomplished production crew. I guess my only reservation is with some of the look-alike supporting players and keeping them straight. Still, it's an entertaining way to spend an hour that's also lost little over the years. Meanwhile, this old geezer could sure use a buddy like the genius-level Friday.