Usually, he's covered in grime or heavy wigs, makeup or period costumes, but in this, he's a basically decent modern widower, struggling to make a living to raise daughter Margaret Barton whom he is firm with, but loving. One night while working as the third shift railway signal man, he witnesses a man being tossed into a local large body of water, and after diving in to try to save him comes out and finds a suitcase Left behind which is filled with bank notes. Newton is now stalked by the killer, William Hartnell, and picks up the abused carnival worker Simone Simon whom he falls in love with.
The tensions build in this film as Hartnell continues to appear out of the blue, scaring Barton into near hysterics (a genuinely chilling scene) and later turning up in Newton's waterfront fishing shack. This is an interesting British neo noir where realistic looking countryside villages look like the real deal, giving me the hint that this was done on location rather than in a studio. The acting is quite realistic with Barton's fear seeming to be from the gut.
The tension builds to a chilling twist towards the end, greatly aided by the advanced technology that the British studios had mastered and that American filmmakers wouldn't achieve until the rise of independent producers a decade after this was made. Ms. Simon is usually an actress whose voice grates on my nerves, but she's quite different here even though the voice is the same. It ends up being the film performance for Newton that has to be seen because he's not going for the Lon Chaney thousand faces look here. He is as he is, and that requires real acting, not hammy over emoting.
The tensions build in this film as Hartnell continues to appear out of the blue, scaring Barton into near hysterics (a genuinely chilling scene) and later turning up in Newton's waterfront fishing shack. This is an interesting British neo noir where realistic looking countryside villages look like the real deal, giving me the hint that this was done on location rather than in a studio. The acting is quite realistic with Barton's fear seeming to be from the gut.
The tension builds to a chilling twist towards the end, greatly aided by the advanced technology that the British studios had mastered and that American filmmakers wouldn't achieve until the rise of independent producers a decade after this was made. Ms. Simon is usually an actress whose voice grates on my nerves, but she's quite different here even though the voice is the same. It ends up being the film performance for Newton that has to be seen because he's not going for the Lon Chaney thousand faces look here. He is as he is, and that requires real acting, not hammy over emoting.