Strange Illusion

It is told that STRANGE ILLUSION was made in little over two weeks with very, very limited funds and fading star power. But director Edgar G. Ulmer had full reins to do what he could with what he had. Still a decent B-movie with plenty of intrigue. The opening "allusive dream" of college lad Paul Cartwright(Jimmy Lydon)is to set up the story line. His well respected father dies mysteriously in a train/car accident which leads to haunting nightmares in which his father warns him of oncoming danger to his mother(Sally Eilers)caused by a mysterious stranger that wants to cause harm to the family. Inter the mystery man Brett Curtis(Warren William)introduced as the widow Cartwright's suitor. Lydon's character becomes a little obsessed with Curtis wooing his mother and making disturbing advances toward his younger sister. Seeking help sorting out circumstances and illusions, Paul turns to a friend of the family Dr. Vincent(Regis Toomey). Next comes maneuvering in and out of a sanitarium and the revelation of false identity and the reason for the unfinished plot to cause destruction of the Cartwright family. This is an enjoyable little psychological melodrama. Also in the cast are: Charles Ant and George Reed.

For a PRC film Strange Illusion is a top drawer item. It's on a PRC shoe string budget to be sure, but Edgar Ullmer is a director who works good with low budgets and in this case some offbeat casting.

James Lydon who most people will know as the radio and film Henry Aldrich is far from the goofy juvenile persona of that role. He's a rather serious student who is deeply concerned about Warren William who has been paying court to his mother Sally Eilers. Lydon's father was killed six months earlier, among other things he was the former Lieutenant Governor of California. His father was also a criminologist who interested himself in the case of a psychopathic killer who is believed dead, but Lydon thinks William's the guy.

What's really creepy in this film is that William in fact has been a patient at a sanitarium under the care of psychiatrist Charles Arnt. No mystery here, we learn early on that Arnt has William working for him. Psychiatrists intimidate people because they are students of the mind and know what makes people tick. Having one with a killer at his beck and call is a frightening concept unto itself. And William has his own agenda.

The lucky break for Lydon is that he also has a psychiatrist at his beck and call, his uncle on his mother's side Regis Toomey.

Strange Illusion is a film that will scare you far more than some blood and gore things because it explores things we don't like to think about. And that other worldly ending is a truly unique experience. I can't say any more about it.

This is one you have to see for yourself.

Although I would hesitate to call it "film noir," Strange Illusion is a tightly woven, intriguing mystery. For a Poverty Row production, the writers and Ulmer paced the film well and kept it interesting. The acting, although amateurish at times, doesn't distract from a believable story. My only real complaint about the film is the music-- too much and too loud.

Brett's penchant for teenage girls is a refreshingly realistic perversion for a film of the '40s. It also stands in stark contrast to the "gee whiz" scenes which seem lifted straight out of "Leave It to Beaver."

I rate it 7/10.

I enjoyed this movie despite it's weaknesses, which at times it feels like a "B" movie technically. For example, at one point the main character is watching from the sanitarium window a car exiting the driveway but his head is not following the movement of the car properly which means it was a matte shot and it looks odd. Also the mother sometimes looks the same or younger than her daughter.

However, my interest was held from beginning to the end. I cared enough about the characters to want to see how they came out of it all.

The movie is in the category of a traditional mystery/drama, but the son's obsession with destroying his mother's fiancee gives the film an interesting suggestive undercurrent. Whether this was intentional, or just viewing it from a modern perspective, I can't say.

After his wealthy and influential father is killed in a suspicious accident, a teenager by the name of "Paul Cartwright" (James Lydon) begins to have nightmares about a mysterious man attempting to ingratiate himself with his widowed mother "Virginia Cartwright" (Sally Eilers) and sister "Dorothy Cartwright" (Jayne Hazard). When he tells his family physician and good friend "Dr. Vincent" (Regis Toomey) about it he is initially told not to worry too much about it. However, Paul becomes even more alarmed when a stranger by the name of "Brett Curtis" (Warren William) arrives at his home bearing an uncanny similarity to the man in his nightmares. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a decent grade-B crime-drama which featured solid acting and an imaginative plot. Admittedly, there were some scenes which were a bit unrealistic but this film was certainly worth the time spent to watch it and have rated it accordingly. Average.