Chicago Reader review: A major work in that minor genre, horror movies.
Intelligent, delicate, and actually frightening (no kidding), this 1957
feaure was directed by Jacques Tourneur, author of many of the best of
Val Lewton's famous series of B-budget shockers. A shot or two of a
cheesy monster (insisted upon by the producer) are the only violations
of the film's sublime allusiveness, through which the unseen acquires a
palpitating presence. Tourneur is attempting a rational apprehension of
the irrational, examining not so much the supernatural itself but the
insecurities it springs from and the uses it may be put to. With Dana
Andrews, Peggy Cummins (of Gun Crazy), and Niall MacGinnis in a witty, Hitchcockian performance as an urbane warlock. Dave Kehr
Here (and above) is a video essay on the film by Chris Fujiwara.
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