Yogi's Movie Consumption Blog

The mad doctor is in an asylum scribbling down instructions for the perfect crime while somebody seems to make those plans come alive. The film has a certain entertainment value and some funny ideas in it, although it had the feeling of a routine work, although being on a very high standard. It combines the early genre of psychothriller, crime and maybe a bit of the imagery of expressive and noir-ish cinema. The characters are all played way over the top and have stage-like mannerisms in most of the scenes. This took me a while to get used to, but it doesn't keep the film from being highly enjoyable. Also, there is a whodunnit quality to the first half of the film which - for the modern viewer at least - is way too easy to guess around. Although the motivation of the evil doctor becomes only clear at the end: knowing that his life is coming to an end, he decides to transfer his sinister plans to paper and his evil soul onto an innocent (?) bystander. The first sce...

An unhappily married cashier and hobby painter is led to support a would-be mistress and her secret lover and resorts to stealing. This movie still lingers on with many memorable scenes. The awkward rencontre in the cafe with his would-be mistress, the bizarre naivete of Robinson's characters which transcends beautifully to the pictures and the harrowing ending where the poor painter is haunted by a remorseless guilt. I 'm surprised that the 40s would give a director leeway to simply steer pass the obvious happy end into such deep waters as Lang does here pretty effortlessly. Things that caught my eye were the interesting set-up of the apartment. The "drawing room" is elevated in one part of the flat, where as the bedroom is "way down somewhere" on the other side. Lang went into great lengths to explain the architecture and geography (it is quite important for some of the film's most important scenes) Robinson is wonderful, but so are all the oth...