A classic

Since I kept hearing great things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. Well, I have to admit it, it is a really odd feature, the only directing effort by Charles Laughton, Robert Mitchum’s favorite movies of his one, and, unsurprisingly, it was a critical and financial flop when it was released. Honestly, could you expect such a weird dark tale to reach an audience back in the 50’s? Even myself, 60 years later, I find it difficult to grasp the whole thing. Roger Ebert had some interesting theories about this movie, that it was some kind of nightmare which was something I didn’t think of while watching it and he also described it as an horror feature but I didn’t really agree on this. Like I said before, the whole thing is rather odd and, sometimes, it jumps from one scene to another without much continuity but there is no denying that it was quite spellbinding to behold. Above all, it is not often that you will come across such a despicable messed up and yet somewhat charismatic main character with a pitch perfect Robert Mitchum. To conclude, it is a really unique feature, a fascinating flick and it is definitely worth a look.

8/10