In a way this movie has some wasted potential in it. It's not like this is an horrible movie to watch but with such a fine original concept (for its time), the movie truly could had been a much better- and way more fascinating one.
The movie now doesn't always work out due to its writing, that isn't always convincing, even though it still at all times remains a good perfectly and watchable movie. It's concept already provide the movie with a certain dark and moody atmosphere, which gets strengthened by its real fine and effective cinematography, that seems just perfect for this type of movie with its mystery and thriller elements, that mostly rely on the movie its atmosphere.
I also surprisingly much liked the musical score for the movie. Roy Webb isn't that well known as most other composers from the same era but he truly made some great stuff throughout his career and also worked with some big name directors like Jacques Tourneur, Robert Wise and Alfred Hithcock.
It's a bit of a too old fashioned movie, in the way it got made. You can blame the inexperienced director Mark Robson for this, who with this movie made his directorial debut. He directed this movie like an '30's movie, while this movie itself got made in 1943. I haven't seen that many movies directed by him but his movie always seem to be minimalistic ones. He could make and tell a story with limited resources and without too much happening in the actual movie itself. This was a quality by him that often provided his movies with some strong and memorable sequences but at the same time also kept all of his movies on the level of being average ones, or ones slightly above that.
The movie would had perhaps also been a better one with some better actors in it. Kim Hunter, who made her movie debut with this movie, was only in her early 20's at the time, plays the real main character of the movie but her character just never really becomes you care about, fore her character constantly looks scared and shy. Sure, the movie still has Tom Conway but not as much as his billing might suggest.
All in all it still remains a good and moody movie to watch and it has some moments of greatness in it but overall the movie as a whole doesn't reach the level of true greatness, due to its writing and old fashioned way of directing style, which was a bit too distracting all.
7/10
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