This could have been so much better than it is. Starting well with powerful imagery and strong narration, this looks as if it will be a great noirish tale of horror, complete with touches of Freud and surrealism. But no, sad to say that every time this film steps up and begins to soar to some nightmare level, the dumb dialogue drags it back down into fluffy melodrama.
Joan Bennett is fine (thirty years before her governess role in Susperia!) but Michael Redgrave is not, far too flat and dour to play a charismatic (killer?). Bennett, apart from those few visual flourishes and moments of splendour, is probably the best reason to see this. Despite the lines she is given she does her very best and always looks quite splendid especially in those particularly sheer tops she is given to wear in the first half.
Joan Bennett is fine (thirty years before her governess role in Susperia!) but Michael Redgrave is not, far too flat and dour to play a charismatic (killer?). Bennett, apart from those few visual flourishes and moments of splendour, is probably the best reason to see this. Despite the lines she is given she does her very best and always looks quite splendid especially in those particularly sheer tops she is given to wear in the first half.