A film noir from 1952 focusing on a child's loss of a pet & the newly moved in neighbor he blames. According to Eddie Muller's Noir Alley, this film noir isn't an aberration since there was a small subset of child noir films made during this period but seeing the inconsolable boy deal w/his dog's death isn't an easy watch as most people know a pet's life has a short, determinate ticking clock. The film is gorgeously shot by noir vet John Alton accentuating the dream-like imagery of shafts of light cutting through foggy tracts of land & building structures made to look like haunting hulks. The only quip would be the happy ending which in most noirs would be a disaster, upending any feelings of angst & dread most noirs engender but here, the boy almost deserves a reprieve from the emotional onslaught & maybe we do too.
Review of Talk About a Stranger
