Rijndri
Load of rubbish!!
CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
daleholmgren
The very end of the movie, when the cops shoot Van Heflin in the back while he's climbing up a dirt mound without knowing whether he even has a gun, seems very callous towards human life. He's just a suspect at this point.Other than that, I can't praise the film highly enough - and I'd never heard of it until I read about it on a Top Ten film noir list!
jcappy
There's been a slew of bad cops in film noir, but none quite like Webb Garwood (Van Heflin) in "The Prowler." He's the cop no woman ever wants to call when she needs help. You might say he's a prowler cop, or better still a glorified stalker.But alone at midnight in her big hacienda, and frightened by a possible peeping tom, it's Susan Gilvray's (Evelyn Keyes) fate to call for the police. This is Garwood's Entry. Cocky, smug, indifferent, intimidating, womanizing, his looming presence and prowess accentuated in the dead-of-night shadows by his tight-fitting black uniform, he comes on more like a sneaky Nazi than a law enforcer.It's obvious that Garwood is not Frank Chambers (John Garfield) in "The Postman Always Rings Twice," whose single motive, despite the plot twists in the end, is to win over the beautiful wife of a much older, doddering, roadside burger joint owner. No Garwood here almost instantly sizes up the whole situation in a few minutes. His master plan is for the possession of a wife, the defeat of her rich, radio celeb husband, who he immediately names a wimp to his rescuing knight, and to seize from him the means of financing his dream Las Vegas motor court.And unlike Frank Chambers, too, he gets no help at all from the young attractive wife. Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) here is the precise opposite of Lana Turner's femme fatale in "Postman." She is genuine inside and out and incapable of plotting her way out of her marriage. To boot, she is most powerfully herself whenever she sees through and stands strong against Garwood's wiles, intents, and lies. In fact, mostly her relationship with him is underwritten by varying degrees of resistance. If she's a pushover, a dupe, or ingratiating at times, it's either because her character mode has been switched over to plot mode., or because she's up against a man who is well-practiced in the arts of romantic deception, and masculine manipulation.Garwood is not only in stark contrast to Susan, but to his police partner, Bud Crocker (John Maxwell), his wife Grace, Susan's in-laws, and almost all the characters he encounters. They're generous-spirited and almost saintly by comparison. But, ironically, it is he who lives in the Hotel Angela. Here he has a large muscle-builder poster on his wall (he drinks milk rather than booze), and a dominant black shooting target with a bullet-riveted torso from his champion sharp-shooter days. In this room, he lazes about in self-absorption, toys with his plots, as he does with things like shavers and phone receivers—and Susan herself, whose defeats he celebrates by tossing spitballs into the light globe above his bed, reminiscent of his heroic basketball days.In short, he's a snark despite his expansive front. He peeps in Susan's windows, he repeatedly alarms her with his police search lights, and he pops into her life on the merest whim. She is nothing more to him than a conquest and a medium to defeat her prestigious husband. The murder he accomplishes and the one he attempts are both too vile for words. And when Susan utterly exposes him, this self-pitying bore can only answer: "I'm no worse than anyone else." In the end, unlike Frank Chamber's (Garfield) "dust you are" lover's death in the presence of a forgiving priest, Garwood gets buried ignominiously in dust. Susan, unlike Cora Smith (Turner), who dies along with her unborn baby, in a car accident, emerges from a traumatic childbirth with a new baby girl companion, the baby that Garwood assumed would be his son. Ha!
swog85
I purchased, "The Prowler" on DVD a few years ago. It includes several extras, with a full length, excellent commentary by Noir expert, Eddie Muller. Van Heflin gives a stellar performance as a cynical police officer who doesn't "protect and serve" anyone other than himself. Officer Webb Garwood (Heflin) blames all of the people along the way in his life, for the fact that he isn't a great success. He is a shiftless and lazy character who sees the finer things in life as his, for the taking. The film opens with Garwood and his partner, Officer Bud Crocker (John Maxwell) responding to the home where a prowler has been reported. Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) has just finished bathing, and tells the officers she saw a prowler. Bud Crocker is a true-blue cop who loves his job and treats Mrs. Gilvray with courtesy and respect. Garwood doesn't really believe there was a prowler, and doesn't care if there was; for then he might have to do some actual work! Susan's somewhat older husband hosts an all night radio program and thus, she is alone. The Gilvrays are financially secure, but Susan the woman, is insecure. Evelyn Keyes shines in the role of Susan! The body language gives credence to the two main characters, who otherwise might have seemed contrived and caricatured. Webb sees an opening for himself with the vulnerable housewife who is left alone each night. She isn't QUITE alone, as the radio is always on. Her husband's voice (doing his idiotic radio show) in the background, provides a level of quirky tension to the goings-on in the Gilvray residence! I certainly won't give anything more, but hopefully I've given just enough of the plot from, "The Prowler", to interest you! I have seen Van Heflin in numerous films, and he is wonderful; playing a guy choosing to do the "right thing" in those films. Heflin's off the chart performance as Webb Garwood is the complete antithesis of the Van Heflin roles I was familiar with. It's an absolute joy to see him in the role of a morally bankrupt cop who hates the world and wants something for nothing! Evelyn Keyes bangs it out of the park in her role as Susan Gilvray. Keyes wanted a role she could sink her teeth into. She'll leave you with some bite marks, too; giving a believable performance as a married woman without children, and lonely. She has morals, and tries to believe she is happy with her life. Webb Garwood senses her vulnerability and pounces, figuratively and literally. "The Prowler" is fun-fun-fun from start to finish. See it, love it and own it!
kidboots
Where do I start - heaping praise on this superlative film? From the very start there is something sinister and slightly creepy about Officer Webb Garwood (Van Heflin), who with a fellow officer is called to Susan Gilray's (Evelyn Keyes) house to investigate an alleged siteing of a prowler. Garwood, from his childhood, has always nursed feelings of deep resentment toward his father, who he feels didn't have the guts to get out of the rut and earn big money. He equates success with wealth and by the time they have checked out "the prowler", he is completely fascinated with Susan and the lifestyle she has. So when he goes back for a routine check, you know that he doesn't have his "kindly policeman's hat" on. His ruthlessness has drawn out Susan's vulnerability and over coffee she confides her unhappiness - after finding out that Webb comes from her hometown - "We Hoosiers have to stick together"!!I think Losey's plan never to show John Gilray - except for the one scene - draws the viewer closer into Susan and Garwood's web. Susan, initially, is an ambiguous character - does she have something to hide? was there ever a prowler? Then you realise, she is just a frightened woman, who married Gilray, not for love but because he could take her away from the life she felt she was falling into. Appearances can be deceptive - Gilray's soothing, folky voice (apparently Dalton Trumbo's) (he is a night time D.J.) hides a controlling, jealous personality - the way Webb's uniform hides an opportunistic nature. The last half of the film goes in a completely different direction as things unravel rapidly once Webb and Susan are on their honeymoon.Van Heflin, it goes without saying, is superb, like Spencer Tracy, a real actor's actor. With an odd nuance or gesture, you know instantly that he is not to be trusted (he says a couple of times he hates being a policeman and it is only when he leaves the force that he becomes more human). Evelyn Keyes is a revelation - I haven't seen her in anything other than "The Jolson Story" but she is more than a match for Heflin in this movie - her ambiguousness and highly strung personality, disappears in the last half of the movie when she becomes strong and resolute in her character.Highly, Highly Recommended.
