Take My Life (1947)
10/10
An opera diva gets mixed up with her husband in a murder mystery of extreme cruelty
16 March 2017
Brilliant thriller with a musical touch to it, the key to the solution being a tiny melody putting the primadonna Greta Gynt on the track. This to me unknown actress dominates the film with a vengeance, never giving up on her lonely and heroic quest to clear her husband, wrongly accused of murder because of unfortunate circumstances speaking against him. The other great female part is Rosalie Crutchley, here very young but already deeply fascinating with her demonic suavity. Francis Sullivan is domineering as usual as the prosecutor and as perfectly objective as the lawyer Jaggers in "Great Expectations" the previous year, but the most interesting part is Marius Goring. He always makes overly intelligent parts risking to run amuck, but here you get closer to his hidden menace than ever. It was Ronald Neame's debut as a director, and it matches more than well any sustained thriller by Hitchcock or Anthony Asquith. It's brilliantly written, flattering the audience by always letting them know more than the actors, and the finale is a cliffhanger with a surprise to it. It was a long time since you last saw such a clever thriller.
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