High Wall
| High Wall | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Curtis Bernhardt |
| Produced by | Robert Lord |
| Screenplay by |
Sydney Boehm Lester Cole |
| Story by |
Alan R. Clark Bradbury Foote |
| Based on |
the play by Alan R. Clark Bradbury Foote |
| Starring |
Robert Taylor Audrey Totter Herbert Marshall |
| Music by | Bronislau Kaper |
| Cinematography | Paul Vogel |
| Editing by | Conrad A. Nervig |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release dates |
|
| Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,844,000[1] |
| Box office | $2,618,000[1] |
High Wall is a 1947 film noir, starring Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter and Herbert Marshall. It was directed by Curtis Bernhardt from a screenplay by Sydney Boehm and Lester Cole, based on a play by Alan R. Clark and Bradbury Foote.[2]
Plot
A man suffering from a recurring brain injury during the war, Steven Kenet, appears to have strangled his wife after catching her living in her boss' apartment. He blacks out while his hands are around the woman's neck. He confesses and is committed to a county asylum. At the asylum, Dr. Ann Lorrison is initially cynical about Kenet's story and his reluctance to undergo treatment. Slowly, she begins to doubt his guilt, and endangers her career when she begins to investigate the crime which eventually leads to another suspect.
Cast
- Robert Taylor as Steven Kenet
- Audrey Totter as Dr. Ann Lorrison
- Herbert Marshall as Willard I. Whitcombe
- Dorothy Patrick as Helen Kenet
- H. B. Warner as Mr. Slocum
- Warner Anderson as Dr. George Poward
- Moroni Olsen as Dr. Philip Dunlap
- John Ridgely as Asst. District Attorney David Wallace
- Morris Ankrum as Dr. Stanley Griffin
- Elisabeth Risdon as Mrs. Kenet (Steven's mother)
- Vince Barnett as Henry Cronner
- Jonathan Hale as Emory Garrison
- Charles Arnt as Sidney X. Hackle (lawyer)
Reception
The film earned $1,553,000 in the US and Canada and $1,065,000 elsewhere resulting in a loss of $101,000.[1][3]
Critical response
The New York Times was glib in their review, writing, "As straight movie melodrama, employing modern psychotherapy, High Wall is a likely lot of terrors, morbid and socially cynical. Just the thing for your holiday entertainment—unless, of course, you are sane."[4]
Film critic Dennis Schwartz called the film "a tepid and chatty psychological melodrama that is embellished with black-and-white film noir visuals by the adept camerawork of Nicolas Vogel," and discussed the problem with the film, "The other main performers are adequate but too bland to convince us that their romance was possible. Robert Taylor's personal despair was more like angst in a soap opera than film noir. The film's biggest faults were that it was never convincing as a mystery story, that the romance story was more Hollywood fantasy than real, that the truth serum is so casually accepted as the answer to establishing the truth and that brain surgery can so easily cure Taylor of his mental disorder."[5]
Writer Spencer Selby calls High Wall "Stylish, representative of late forties noir thrillers."[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
- ↑ High Wall at the TCM Movie Database.
- ↑ Scott Eyman, Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer, Robson, 2005 p 401
- ↑ The New York Times. Film review, December 26, 1947. Accessed: July 17, 2013.
- ↑ Schwartz, Dennis. Ozus' World Movie Reviews, film review, September 23, 2004. Accessed: July 17, 2013.
- ↑ Spencer Selby (1984). Dark City: The Film Noir. McFarland Classic. ISBN 0-7864-0478-7.
External links
- High Wall at the American Film Institute Catalog
- High Wall at the Internet Movie Database
- High Wall at allmovie
- High Wall at the TCM Movie Database
- High Wall film trailer at YouTube