Heavy handed drama where every move and action, no matter how insignificant it is, is followed by a loud blast of orchestra-like music that almost blows you out of your seat. In many cases the music is aided by quick and ultra-sharp close-ups that makes you think that your seeing a Mel Brooks comedy of an Alfred Hitchcock film like the 1977 movie "High Anxiety". These techniques are done over and over in the movie "The Naked Edge" that after a while you forget what the story is all about in the first place.
Gary Cooper in his last movie, before he died on May 13, 1961, looks drawn and tired as George Radcliffe a witness to the murder of his boss Jason Roote, Martin Boddey,and the robbery of 60,000 pound-sterling from the London office of the Jason Roote Air-Fright corp where he works.
It was Radcliffe's testimony that sent fellow worker Donald Heath, Ray MacAnally, away for life. Radcliffe seems to be hiding something about the crime that happened at the Jason Roote office from his wife Martha, Deborah Kerr. That's the main core of the story in the movie "The Naked Edge" but you have to suffer through almost 90 minutes of ridicules Hitchcock-like dramatics to get to the truth in the last ten minutes or so of the movie which, the films totally contrived ending, didn't seem worth sitting through.
Even top stars like Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr as well as Eric Portman and Peter Cushing couldn't save this turkey. We see at the start of the movie George Radcliffe testify about a murder and robbery at the Jason Roote office in a weird dream-like flash-back where Roote is murdered, off-screen. The killer, unrecognizable in dark shadow, takes off with a sack of the companies daily c.o.d's amounting to 60,000 pound-sterling. Searching for the killer the police find Heath in the boiler room drunk but the money is nowhere to be found.
Identified by Radcliffe as the murder Heath is convicted and sent to prison for life. It's right after that were bombarded with clues and innuendos to who the real killer is. It's not until almost the end of the movie that we finally find out just who he is when Radcliffe finally regains his lost memory of the event. Watching the film is like going 15 rounds in the ring with a 30 year-old Rocky Marciano that in the end leaves you totally punch-drunk from the pounding to your five senses that the movie gives you. The blasts of music and eye-popping close-ups as well as the strain on your brain make any kind of sense of what your seeing on the screen moot.
A key piece of evidence shows up five years after the Roote murder that's in a letter that was lost in the mail addressed to Radcliffe that's being used to blackmail him for the crime. Radcliffe also came into a large sum of money just after the Roote murder which he tells his confused and surprised wife Martha that he made in a "Killing" in the stock market.
You sit through the rest of the movie wondering if Radcliffe did or did not kill Jason Roote and stole the 60,000 in pound-sterling. Radcliffe at the same time does everything possible to convince you, and his wife Martha, that he did and almost drives her to commit suicide.
The really off-the-wall and obnoxious ending in the movie is far worse then the murder/robbery in the film "The Naked Edge". It just about does you in and leaves you in an almost comatose state of mind.
Gary Cooper in his last movie, before he died on May 13, 1961, looks drawn and tired as George Radcliffe a witness to the murder of his boss Jason Roote, Martin Boddey,and the robbery of 60,000 pound-sterling from the London office of the Jason Roote Air-Fright corp where he works.
It was Radcliffe's testimony that sent fellow worker Donald Heath, Ray MacAnally, away for life. Radcliffe seems to be hiding something about the crime that happened at the Jason Roote office from his wife Martha, Deborah Kerr. That's the main core of the story in the movie "The Naked Edge" but you have to suffer through almost 90 minutes of ridicules Hitchcock-like dramatics to get to the truth in the last ten minutes or so of the movie which, the films totally contrived ending, didn't seem worth sitting through.
Even top stars like Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr as well as Eric Portman and Peter Cushing couldn't save this turkey. We see at the start of the movie George Radcliffe testify about a murder and robbery at the Jason Roote office in a weird dream-like flash-back where Roote is murdered, off-screen. The killer, unrecognizable in dark shadow, takes off with a sack of the companies daily c.o.d's amounting to 60,000 pound-sterling. Searching for the killer the police find Heath in the boiler room drunk but the money is nowhere to be found.
Identified by Radcliffe as the murder Heath is convicted and sent to prison for life. It's right after that were bombarded with clues and innuendos to who the real killer is. It's not until almost the end of the movie that we finally find out just who he is when Radcliffe finally regains his lost memory of the event. Watching the film is like going 15 rounds in the ring with a 30 year-old Rocky Marciano that in the end leaves you totally punch-drunk from the pounding to your five senses that the movie gives you. The blasts of music and eye-popping close-ups as well as the strain on your brain make any kind of sense of what your seeing on the screen moot.
A key piece of evidence shows up five years after the Roote murder that's in a letter that was lost in the mail addressed to Radcliffe that's being used to blackmail him for the crime. Radcliffe also came into a large sum of money just after the Roote murder which he tells his confused and surprised wife Martha that he made in a "Killing" in the stock market.
You sit through the rest of the movie wondering if Radcliffe did or did not kill Jason Roote and stole the 60,000 in pound-sterling. Radcliffe at the same time does everything possible to convince you, and his wife Martha, that he did and almost drives her to commit suicide.
The really off-the-wall and obnoxious ending in the movie is far worse then the murder/robbery in the film "The Naked Edge". It just about does you in and leaves you in an almost comatose state of mind.