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Le Rôdeur

Original title: The Prowler
  • 1951
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 32m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
5K
YOUR RATING
Le Rôdeur (1951)
After Susan Gilvray reports a prowler outside her house police officer Webb Garwood investigates and sparks fly. If only her husband wasn't in the way.
Play trailer1:48
1 Video
89 Photos
Film NoirPsychological ThrillerDramaThriller

After Susan Gilvray reports a prowler outside her house, police officer Webb Garwood investigates and sparks fly. If only her husband wasn't in the way.After Susan Gilvray reports a prowler outside her house, police officer Webb Garwood investigates and sparks fly. If only her husband wasn't in the way.After Susan Gilvray reports a prowler outside her house, police officer Webb Garwood investigates and sparks fly. If only her husband wasn't in the way.

  • Director
    • Joseph Losey
  • Writers
    • Hugo Butler
    • Robert Thoeren
    • Hans Wilhelm
  • Stars
    • Van Heflin
    • Evelyn Keyes
    • John Maxwell
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.1/10
    5K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Joseph Losey
    • Writers
      • Hugo Butler
      • Robert Thoeren
      • Hans Wilhelm
    • Stars
      • Van Heflin
      • Evelyn Keyes
      • John Maxwell
    • 72User reviews
    • 50Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 1:48
    Trailer

    Photos89

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    Top cast26

    Edit
    Van Heflin
    Van Heflin
    • Webb Garwood
    Evelyn Keyes
    Evelyn Keyes
    • Susan Gilvray
    John Maxwell
    John Maxwell
    • Bud Crocker
    Katherine Warren
    Katherine Warren
    • Grace Crocker
    • (as Katharine Warren)
    Emerson Treacy
    Emerson Treacy
    • William Gilvray
    Madge Blake
    Madge Blake
    • Martha Gilvray
    Wheaton Chambers
    Wheaton Chambers
    • Doctor James
    Robert Osterloh
    Robert Osterloh
    • Coroner
    Sherry Hall
    • John Gilvray
    Louise Lorimer
    Louise Lorimer
    • Motel Manager
    Herbert Anderson
    Herbert Anderson
    • Reporter
    • (uncredited)
    Louise Bates
    Louise Bates
    • Evelyn
    • (uncredited)
    Jack Baxley
    • Juryman
    • (uncredited)
    Benny Burt
    Benny Burt
    • Journalist
    • (uncredited)
    Steve Carruthers
    Steve Carruthers
    • Mr. Talbot
    • (uncredited)
    John Damler
    John Damler
    • Airline Clerk
    • (uncredited)
    Bess Flowers
    Bess Flowers
    • Spectator at Coroner's Inquest
    • (uncredited)
    John George
    John George
    • Man in Crowd
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Joseph Losey
    • Writers
      • Hugo Butler
      • Robert Thoeren
      • Hans Wilhelm
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews72

    7.14.9K
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    Featured reviews

    8claudio_carvalho

    I Will Be Seeing You, Susan

    In California, the gorgeous housewife Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) glances at a prowler outside her house in a wasteland and she calls the police. Officer Webb Garwood (Van Heflin) and his partner attend the call and do not find anyone. Later Webb returns to her house with the pretext of checking if everything is OK with Susan and she invites him to drink a coffee with her. Soon he learns that Susan is married with John Gilvray (Sherry Hall), a middle age broadcaster of a late night radio show. Further, they discover that they are from the same homeland. Webb hits on Susan and soon they have a love affair. But when John suspects of Susan, their relationship comes to an end.

    Webb plots a scheme to get rid off John and he kills John simulating an accident. Webb goes on trial and is considered not-guilty for the murder of John. Webb quits the police and manipulates John's brother to get close to Susan again. He learns that John could not have children and their marriage was not perfect. Webb meets Susan and convinces her that he is really innocent. Soon they get married and they buy a motel to start a new life. But in the wedding night, Susan discloses that she is four months pregnant. How could they explain the baby to the press after the publicity around the case?

    "The Prowler" is a great but unknown Film-Noir directed by Joseph Losey with a story of adultery and greed. Webb Garwood is a sordid frustrated man that manipulates the housewife Susan Gilvray, who has a loveless marriage without children with an older man, to marry him. The conclusion is moralist but does not spoil the story. My vote is eight.

    Title (Brazil): "Cúmplice das Sombras" ("Accomplice of the Shadows")
    brice-945-410027

    Classic Film Noir

    This is a really good and sadly overlooked film noir. No happy endings are to be found here, just good performances and writing and a close to perfect example of the film noir genre.
    dbdumonteil

    The sleeping tiger

    One of the many great films noirs the director made in the fifties ,which would culminate in "time without pity" :and a very successful one, thanks to Van Heflin,who at first sight seems a helpful affable cop whereas he is actually a cupid embittered man:he was not given the chance to study at the university and he became a policeman by default.He must have gone through hard times :when the woman invites him for dinner ,he catches all that he can on his way to the dining room.

    In its second part the movie recalls Fritz Lang's "You only live twice "(after "the prowler" ,Losey remade "M"),but with a big difference : Lang's heroes are both victims of an unfair society whereas Susan is completely innocent (as far as the crime is concerned)but her new husband is dangerous ,verging on paranoia (the scene when you hear the dead speak on the record is stunning).It's perhaps one of the rare movies in which a baby becomes a living threat.Even the wind ,in the shack -probably Victor Seastrom's silent movie influence- becomes an enemy .
    7kalbimassey

    Dodgy Van on road to ruin

    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.
    6Doylenf

    Tense low-budget thriller has its moments...scary performance from Van Heflin...

    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.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Uncredited producer John Huston conceived this project as a star vehicle for his estranged wife, Evelyn Keyes, as a sort of parting gift. She had long complained about her lack of challenging roles while under contract at Columbia. They were divorced by the time production began. Although more famous for her role in Autant en emporte le vent (1939), Keyes felt this to be the best role and best performance of her career.
    • Goofs
      Webb tells Susan the birth of their baby will increase the ghost town's population by 33-1/3%. The birth actually will increase the population by 50%, because the population will go from two to three.
    • Quotes

      Webb Garwood: [working on picking the lock of her husband's storage box] Does he keep everything locked up?

      Susan Gilvray: Mostly.

      Webb Garwood: You, too?

      Susan Gilvray: That's a leading question.

      Webb Garwood: Ha, probably does. A mean, jealous guy like that wants his wife all to himself. I can't say I blame him, though. I'd do the same myself...

      Webb Garwood: [managing to pick the lock and open the storage box] There. See how silly it is to keep things locked up?

      Susan Gilvray: Maybe. But it did delay you for a little while.

      Webb Garwood: Is that all he wants, just to delay things?

      Susan Gilvray: Sometimes a little delay does the trick.

    • Connections
      Featured in Kika (1993)
    • Soundtracks
      Baby
      Lyrics by Dick Mack

      Music by Lyn Murray

      Sung by Robert Carroll (as Bob Carroll)

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    FAQ14

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • January 11, 1952 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • El cómplice de las sombras
    • Filming locations
      • Calico Ghost Town, Yermo, California, USA(where Webb and Susan live when she is pregnant)
    • Production company
      • Eagle Production
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 32m(92 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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