another complex and at time morally ambiguous film noir from otto preminger and engage the service of top writer ben hecht and actor of the quality of gene tierney and jose ferrer to give it life . it old ground of course for all of them and preminger and tierney have team up in laura and and with hecht be to do so again in the soon come where the sidewalk end while hecht have previously turn psychoanalysis to thrill effect in hitchcock spellbound . there be certainly some typically subversive little preminger or hecht touch and i detect and of voyeurism and fetishism and run the film close and i would imagine and to the prevail moral code of the day and which the former be to take on further in the moon be blue and to some kind of apogee in anatomy of a murder 10 year later . look and listen closely here and you will see the camera fade out a shot of tierney husband just about to disrobe his wife after she fall into a hypnotically induced deep sleep and at another point the salacious quote address to tierney by morally corrupt blackmail hypnotist or astrologist ( what a cv . ) ferrer about undress her scruple . i be even pull up by the scene of the blood mark on the floor from ferrer character a something you do not see everyday in the sanitised and hollywood still come to term with the communist witch hunt in the post war era . the playing be excellent and tierney and who i have only just discover a an actress ( largely through watch old film noirs . ) be again radiantly beautiful a the ashamed kleptomaniac and desperate for a cure and but at the same time convey her character complexity and inner toughness a she finally break the hypnotic spell cast on her by ferrer . for me and ferrer steal the movie and make your skin crawl in every scene he play once his pervert ( in every sense of the word ) design become apparent . their scene together and where he can hardly conceal his lust for tierney and desire to break up her happy home be electric and he also get a lengthy scene where he hypnotise himself against the excruciating after effect of his self conduct gall bladder operation . he completely convince you of his strength of will over his physical pain to enable him to go after tierney a she struggle to recover her amnesia which will of course expose his own guilt . the direction be taut and the cinematography excellent and the setting convincing and i also especially appreciate the excellent use of music to dramatise key scene . naturally there a large degree of implausibility about just how tierney find herself under the control of such a toxic character and the denouement be perhaps more complicated and play out than it might be but this be still a highly intelligent and challenge piece of cinema and far push back the barrier of adult cinema in late 40 hollywood .