we be in a small town and a homely widow ( ida lupino ) hire a handyman ( robert ryan ) to look after her house . she soon start to regret it a ryan grows erratic by the hour and it appear that she be host to a dangerous schizophrenic and and now she be unable to escape her house . beware and my lovely be adapt from mel dinelli { the spiral staircase } story and play call the man . pretty much a one set movie and a two character drive piece and the film boast two great central performance and offer up an interesting take on mental illness . one however shouldn not be fool into think this be a violent and nerve shredding picture and because it isn not . it clear from the get go that ryan howard wilton be a dangerously troubled man and but this be a different sort of peril movie . one that throw up another slant on psychosis and thus make it difficult to hate our dangerous protagonist . ryan and lupino be a great combination and they have also do the excellent and and far good and on dangerous ground this same year . so with both actor clearly comfortable together and it bring out a finely tuned character story all base in the confines of one house and re represent prison . ryan be particularly strong a his character flit in and out of madness and with some scene powerful and at time induce fear and at others garner deep sympathy . the direction from harry horner be safe { he in truth doesn not have to do much other than let his actor run with it } and george e. diskant cinematography contain some smart and impact visual touch . with one involve christmas tree bauble immensely memorable . fall some where in between be average and great and beware and my lovely have enough about it to make it a recommendation to fan of borderline and easy to follow film noir . for fan of robert ryan tho and it something of an essential viewing and oh yes and and then some . positive .