I See a Dark Stranger
|
List Price: Our Price: $12.65 You Save: $7.29 (36%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $7.69 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of I See a Dark Stranger
Movie Review: Fun thriller from a classic British era
Summary: 4 Stars
The team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliatt specialized in smart, witty, quintessentially British thrillers of the sort that made Hitchcock's name-- and not only did they write one of Hitchcock's first big successes, The Lady Vanishes, Gilliatt really invented the minigenre of the droll train-based thriller with 1932's Rome Express while Hitchcock was still learning his trade. (After The Lady Vanishes they wrote its sort-of-sequel, Night Train to Munich, which I for one think is even better.) Deborah Kerr stars as an Irish lass with stars in her eyes for the Irish cause, which get her caught in the intrigues of a Nazi spy (the scarily cold Raymond Huntley). It was Kerr's breakthrough performance (and one that may seem familiar since Maureen O'Hara copies it closely in The Quiet Man). Especially compared with today's sub-Republic-serial action films, the suspense scenes are well thought out and present believable problems (how DO you get rid of a body from the second floor of an inn in a small town where everyone knows you?), and the comic touches (note the surreal "twin" bureaucrats) are sharply observed.
The presence of Trevor Howard as a light romantic lead in this film reminds us that as British thrillers got more serious after the war-- in such films as The Third Man, The Clouded Yellow and They Made Me a Fugitive, all starring Howard and making use of his dour, seen-awful-things-in-wartime manner-- Launder and Gilliatt weren't really capable of following. But when it comes to amusingly British, skillfully exciting entertainments in the 1930s and 1940s, they were first-rate and deserve to be better remembered.
Movie Review: Comedic thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
I See a Dark Stranger is a curious if wildly entertaining British thriller from 1946, just after the war. It stars Deborah Kerr as Bridie Quilty, a rambunctious Irish girl fed on her father's tales of resisting the English in the teens. Growing a hatred towards the English in general (especially Oliver Cromwell, which becomes a recurring gag), she decides to join the IRA at the height of WWII. Naturally, instead of the IRA she ends up getting involved into all sorts of unfortunate Nazi plots and the fate of England more or less ends up in her hands. Trevor Howard, as a romantic interest she is forced to become involved with due to her duties as a spy, tails her throughout the movie. The movie is noteworthy mainly for its excellent, lovingly detailed script, which manages to balance humour with suspense (although not perfectly) as well as the superb performance of Deborah Kerr. She is ravishing at 25, and the film provides her an endless variety of scenes in which to strut her considerable acting talents. There is something of an overuse of first-person narration throughout the film, although that, and the many dark scenes, give the movie a creepy noirish feel (although it is by no means a noir). The charming Trevor Howard and the rest of the supporting cast are quite good too, although Kerr retains the spotlight throughout.Movie Review: WWII Cloak & Dagger Classic
Summary: 4 Stars
A post-WWII B&W film featuring the beautiful Deborah Kerr. There are a couple of other significant names from that era in the film (Raymond Huntley, Trevor Howard), but this is really The Deborah Kerr Show.
Kerr superbly takes on the character of a 21 year old Irish girl, in 1944, with a chip on her shoulder against the English (which she inherited from her late father). She makes a fumbling attempt to get into the IRA, is rejected, but then later recruited by German spies.
An entertaining spy story with some GREAT historic and landscape footage from Ireland and Britain during the period. Also is an interesting look at the politics of the time. The plot is not really rocket science, but is a vehicle for Kerr to turn in a remarkable performance as the young Irish would-be revolutionary.
The transfer was a little jumpy in the first few minutes, but then crystal clear black-and white throughout. The soundtrack was adequate, but with the music typically "tinny", of that film era. Very British.
Movie Review: Following where Hitchcock first trod...
Summary: 4 Stars
Deborah Kerr and Trevor Howard costar in this unusual spy story, wherein Kerr plays a young Irish lass, raised on her dad's romantic self-mythologizing "war stories" of the 1916 Irish rebellion, who goes to England to fight against the British oppressors. It being the middle of World War Two, she decides the enemy of her enemy is her friend, and she hooks up with a German spymaster, gathinging information from the jovial soldiers that frequent the local pub... She comes around, of course, once she realizes that passing on the information about the upcoming D-Day invasion may cost the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, but in between she is a uniquely unsympathetic protagonist. It's amazing that this particular story would have been filmed so close after the close of the war, when the extent of German barbarity haad been so clearly exposed; the bigger point seems to have been to diffuse and sideline Irish political separatism... Still, as a silly spy film, this is reasonably enjoyable... it's just a little weird around the edges.Movie Review: Very good if not outstanding
Summary: 4 Stars
This comparatively little known film may not bear comparison with the very best, but it certainly does not justify the comparative neglect it has been subject to, at least in this country. It is a very satisfying comedy-thriller, and well worth watching, with a good performance, as usual, from Deborah Kerr.
More Movie Reviews:
1 2
1 2