Thu 2 Sep 2010
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: SUSPENSE (1946).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[5] Comments
SUSPENSE. Monogram, 1946. Belita, Barry Sullivan, Bonita Granville, Albert Dekker, Eugene Pallette. Story & screenplay: Philip Yordan; director: Frank Tuttle.
Back in 1946, Monogram Studios, home of Sam Katzman, the Bowery Boys and Bela Lugosi, made a bid for respectability with a couple of films noirs starring Barry Sullivan and skating star Belita.
The Gangster bloats itself on pretension, but Suspense comes in right on the money, with a clever script by Philip Yordan and solid performances by a cast that includes Albert Dekker and Eugene Pallette.
The story uses the framework of the rise-and-fall of a hustler, played by Sullivan with his usual assurance, who leeches onto a classy ice show run by Belita and her husband Dekker, playing a role he patented: the crook too smart for his own good.
Things take off when Sullivan and Belita fall for each other, Dekker decides to kill at least one of them, and an old flame turns up from Sullivan’s past with romance and/or blackmail in mind.
But that’s just the start of a clever, elliptical screenplay that implies more than it shows and keeps the viewer guessing for its entire length. The ice-dance numbers slow things down a bit — in fact they bring the whole story to a wheezing, protesting halt for minutes at a time — but they’re well-mounted and anyway that’s why God gave us the fast-forward button. Even with the interruptions, Suspense is a film to gladden all fans of gritty little B-movies.
Editorial Comment: The movie is available on DVD from Warner Archives.
September 2nd, 2010 at 6:46 pm
This is an excellent example of what can be done with no budget and decent actors and script, though I didn’t find it half as good as Dan does. The opening shot is spectacular though.
I’m afraid for me those long numbers and the diffuse plot just killed it.
Sullivan was also good in MIAMI STORY and Sidney Sheldon’s NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
I did like GANGSTER much better than you Dan, and much more than this, but I grant it is more pretentious and lacks some of the simpler virtues of this one.
Still, both are good examples of what you can do with no budget, and thanks for reminding me of this one. Even if I don’t like it as much as you do, it is worth seeing.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:30 am
Sam Katzman was, for the most part, at Columbia.
September 3rd, 2010 at 12:46 pm
From what I know about him, Katzman didn’t work for Columbia full-time until 1947.
— Steve
September 3rd, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Columbia was the poverty row of the majors to some extent, so Sam should have been at home there. He produced THE MAGIC CARPET, that Lucy movie I reviewed here a while back from 1951 — which also ties to Steve’s review above since it stars John Agar.
September 4th, 2010 at 1:30 am
By the by Frank Tuttle, who directed this, also helmed the 1935 version of Hammett’s THE GLASS KEY with George Raft, Edward Arnold, and Guinn Big Boy Williams.