Sat 18 Mar 2023
An Archived Movie Review: THE VELVET TOUCH (1948).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[3] Comments
THE VELVET TOUCH. RKO Radio Pictures, 1948. Rosalind Russell, Leo Genn, Claire , Trevor, Sydney Greenstreet, Leon Ames, Frank McHugh, Lex Barker. Screenplay: Leo Rosten. Director: Jack Gage.
A Broadway star murders her producer and former lover in a fit of rage, then finds out all the evidence points to another actress. Has she committed the perfect murder, or will her conscience not allow her to get away with it?
A big-name cast, bu there is more drama than mystery here. You could fall asleep in the first half. The second half features some unorthodox police questioning, by an outlandish captain of police, played by Sydney Greenstreet, as only Sydney Greenstreet could.
– Reprinted from Movie.File.2, June 1980.
March 18th, 2023 at 6:15 pm
For Dan Stumpf’s take on this: film, posted earlier on this blog, go here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=75653
He concludes with a final paragraph that begins with the following:
“The Velvet Touch may be a bit deliberate, lacking the dramatic fatalism of film noir…”
What I was wondering while I was preparing these old remarks of mine for posting, is whether this film might be as close as Miss Russell came to being in a film noir?
March 18th, 2023 at 9:28 pm
Russell did one with Melvyn Douglas, THE GUILT OF JANET AMES (1947) that was very noirish in style.
For me the “duel” of wits between Greenstreet and Russell make this one worthwhile.
March 18th, 2023 at 10:34 pm
I’ll have to watch this one again.Given all kinds of good things said about Greenstreet’s performance in this one, I’ll do my best a find a copy of it and watch it again. (It’s not on YouTube.)
And as for JULIET AMES, I have to confess: I never heard of it. Wikipedia describes it as “American sentimental film noir.”
I’ll watch it anyway: