Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

tedg When I heard that 3D would be going mainstream a few years ago, I hoped for a revolution in what we think films are. I believe we are seeing *some* radical rethinking, because with 3D and CGI, we get a less encumbered camera, one whose normal stance is eye height of a human ghost, anchored to the Earth.In other comments, I have noted how this evolution is developing, even in the safest blockbusters. This by itself is a more fundamental shift in our world than nearly everything because it changes how we dream and love. But I was hoping for something more fluid in what realities we see, like *Birdman,* but for film, not stage.The film world had a similar period where new technology challenged us to devise a new narrative vocabulary. For better or worse, our present stories evolved in the great experimental period from, say 1929 to 1941 (Citizen Kane). So rattling around in that period, one sees a much greater variety than we have today. Some of the experimental models stuck around for another ten.Many of these are like this film — a play designed to only engage in the last few moments. This is a bit hard for modern viewers to watch, because there is the barest work to engage. We only have enough (enough for the period) to keep us in our seats. Simple events and a bit of chummy humor.All the engineering goes into the end, where our growing threat is reversed by our smart woman.

Paularoc A young woman, played by Ann Harding, wins a huge lottery and has big plans to see the world and do exciting things. She soon meets the romantic and suave Basil Rathbone character who quickly wins her over with his smooth talk. In spite of both her roommate and ex-beau warning her that Basil is not all he appears to be, Harding marries him. The middle part of the movie is very draggy. All right already - she's a sap and he's crazy. But the ending makes up for the earlier slow pace. The verbal battle between Harding and Rathbone is quite amazing. The movie is worth watching because of the performances of Harding and Rathbone but the whole "Bluebeard" premise is not one I find particularly interesting or entertaining.

lordreith An extraordinarily entertaining thriller. The acting is melodramatic, and rightly so. A clever plot by Agatha Christie (how could it be otherwise?) keeps things moving along at a rapid clip. Two wonderful players -- Basil Rathbone and Ann Harding -- give bravura over-the-top performances that are breathtaking in their high-wire daring. Ann Harding especially was a revelation -- a gorgeous blonde with poise and class who had beautiful diction -- an American mid-Atlantic "Seven Sisters" voice that was as melodious as a cello. Basil Rathbone never ceases to amaze. Here, he is frightening and charming simultaneously. And two cheers for the Art Deco furnishings that grace one scene. Were those Lalique glass-paneled doors?

theowinthrop Agatha Christie had a hard time with the movie adaptations of her works. Prior to the astounding success of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS in the 1970s, only two film adaptations of her works had been done well: the 1944 version of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, and (beyond that) the 1957 version of WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION. The former was done by the French film director Rene Clair, and the latter by Billy Wilder, and both were well cast. But those were like exceptions to the general rule. WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION had a memorable performance of Charles Laughton as the cagey old barrister Sir Wilfred Robarts (ably assisted by his nurse, played by Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester). But in the early 1930s an early English talkie was made of ALIBI, a play based on THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD. Laughton had made a name for himself on stage as Hercule Poirot in that play, and was repeating the role for film. Christie saw the finished result and wondered if she should allow her other stories to be made into movies! In 1937 Christie allowed a play she wrote, "Philomel Cottage" to be made into a film. The film was retitled LOVE FROM A STRANGER, and starred Ann Harding as a lonely young woman who wins a fortune in a lottery. Soon she meets a fascinating, sophisticated gentleman played by Basil Rathbone, who sweeps her off her feet and marries her. But his charms begin to frazzle after marriage - he insists on them moving to the cottage (of the play's title) which is in an out-of-the-way location, and he slowly drives away all her friends. As she realizes how isolated she is, she begins to wonder what is the real personality of the man she has married: is he moody or is he actually planning to murder her for her money.Although not handled by a director of the caliber of Clair or Wilder (or of ORIENT EXPRESS' Sidney Lumet), LOVE FROM A STRANGER benefited from the hand of Rowland Lee, an expert director of melodrama and detective films. Lee wisely kept to the story, and allowed Rathbone to play one of his best villains. Basil is a fortune hunter and "Bluebeard" like Henri Landru or George Joseph Smith. He has more polish than the average killer: witness his abilities to order a first rate dinner early in the film for Harding and himself, including choosing the fine wine involved. He also is quite in love with his accomplishments. When the neighborhood doctor and he are discussing murder cases the former mentions one in South America where the killer defended himself and got off, and left the jurisdiction just before the evidence that would have convicted him turned up. Rathbone says that killer was brilliant, and was really something else. Of course, as it turns out, that killer was Rathbone.Harding balances him, trying to keep her suspicions under control and trying to counter all of Rathbone's various schemes so that she can stay alive. It becomes a literal battle to the death between the two of them.LOVE FROM A STRANGER lacks the production values of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE and WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, but it has two sturdy performances and good directing behind it. It is the best of the pre-1944 Christie films. In 1947 it would be remade (with the same title) with John Hodiak and Sylvia Sidney and John Howard, although no longer treated as a modern story but set back in the 1890s.One final point. The supporting cast included David Calthrop (who frequently was in British movies in this period), and Jean Cadell. But one name in the cast is rather ironic. Joan Hickson had an early role in this film. In the 1980s the B.B.C. discovered in Ms Hickson the first woman to play the role of Miss Jane Marple (pace Margaret Rutherford and Angela Lansbury) as Christie had written the role. Hickson would appear in nearly a dozen small screen multi-episode productions in the 1980s and 1990s before her death in 1998. Her performances as Miss Marple remain a standard to match all others in that role.