Tension (film)

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Tension

Theatrical Poster
Directed by John Berry
Produced by Robert Sisk
Written by Story:
John D. Klorer
Screenplay:
Allen Rivkin
Starring Richard Basehart
Audrey Totter
Music by André Previn
Cinematography Harry Stradling
Editing by Albert Akst
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) January 11, 1950
Running time 95 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Tension(1950) is a crime thriller film noir directed by John Berry, and written by Allen Rivkin, based on a story written by John D. Klore. The drama features Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse, and others.[1]

Contents

[edit] Plot

A drugstore manager, Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart), is married to sexy, man-hungry Claire (Audrey Totter). She leaves him for another man, Barney (Lloyd Gough).

Quimby decides to murder the man. He devises a complex plan, which involves assuming a new identity, to make it look like someone else murdered Claire's new boyfriend but can't go through with the killing. Barney is instead murdered by Claire but all the evidence points to Quimby.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Critical reception

Film critic Walter Addiego, staff critic at the San Francisco Examiner, wrote of the drama, "They aren't making 'em anymore like this 1949 melodrama by John Berry, and that's too bad...What sticks with you about the film is what a classic, prize-winning sap the Basehart character is, how pathetic and ill-considered are his dreams of domestic bliss, and how easily he's able to shift into a new and quite different identity. All in all, a good example of noirish post-war disillusionment - and it has Cyd Charisse and William Conrad, to boot."[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Tension at the Internet Movie Database.
  2. ^ Addiego, Walter. San Francisco Examiner, film review, April 25, 1998. Last accessed: January 31, 2008.

[edit] External links