L'étrange fascination

Entertaining run of the mill 1950s b movie brightened by the beauty and charisma of Cleo Taurus Moore.

A European pianist comes to America and falls for a dancehall girl. Written, directed, produced and starring Hugo Haas, who doesn't do a particularly good job in any of those roles. The script is lifeless and poorly written (including a second act twist that doesn't make a lick of sense), a lot of very prosaic drama that never catches fire. The camera-work is entirely uninteresting, and borderline amateurish. The performances and characterizations are bland. This is the first of seven films that Haas did with pin-up gal Cleo Moore, which is odd because here they have little chemistry together. The film is categorized as noir, but that seems like a stretch by any definition of the genre. Only in the final 10 minutes do we get any compelling plot material, and I will say I quite liked the ending. But otherwise it's a snooze.

The Czech actor Hugo Haas was a very popular film star. However, after fleeing the Third Reich he came to America and his career never reached the same heights. He mostly appeared in lower budgeted movies, though a few times he managed to do what he did in "Strange Fascination"...he directed, wrote, produced AND starred in it!

Paul (Haas) is a concert pianist who is unknown in America. Through the help of a rich American lady, he is brought to the States for a concert tour. While this works well, things start to go amiss when he falls for a trampy dancer, Margo (Cleo Moore). She is an expert at playing men and the middle-aged Paul hasn't a chance with her. Soon she is a major part of his life and he marries her. However, he isn't a rich man and is beholden to his sponsor, Diana (Mona Barrie). And, this sponsor soon abandons him when Paul makes a mess of his life. What's next in this tragic tale? Plenty!

Is this a fun film to watch? Nope. It's pretty tragic and sad. It is, however, well made I also appreciate how Moore's character is conniving but not 100% awful...and many of Paul's problems are self-created. It's not just a 'black & white' marriage. Overall an interesting character study but also a downer of a story. So, if you are feeling depressed, it's NOT a story for you!

Euro pianist paul marvan (haas) is brought back to the united states by the wealthy diana fowler ( monie barrie). But marvan falls for another girl (cleo moore), and marries her, sabotaging his own career. Or at least his steady income from mrs. Fowler. And when he needs money, he comes up with a low-down, illegal scheme to raise money fast. Will it work? What will happen to them? It's a bit over the top, but probably plausible, maybe during the depression. Written and directed by hugo haas. Sometimes bad things happen when the same person writes, directs, and stars in a film. But in this case, it turned out okay! Produced by haas himself, for columbia pictures. Haas and moore made a whole bunch of films together, with very similar plots.

Hugo Haas was a middle-aged character actor who began writing, producing and starring in (though playing second fiddle to glamorous blondes) low-budget films in the 1950's. His first two films as "auteur" starred Beverly Michaels but it was his seven collaborations with beautiful Cleo Moore that are better remembered today. STRANGE FASCINATION was their first film together and one of the more conservative, less lurid of the bunch, a fairly conventional drama of a renown concert pianist (Haas) who becomes attracted to and marries a nightclub dancer (Moore) which starts him on the road to ruin. A few years later, Moore's character would have been a bad girl who took him for everything he had, here she's rather sweet girl who is really not responsible for his problems. Since the melodrama here is low key this is one of the duller Moore/Haas romps but Cleo looks close to her most beautiful with a pageboy hairstyle and cute clothes and for movie buffs there's 1930's starlet Mona Barrie in a featured part.