Whirlpool
1949 Crime / Drama / Thriller
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Credits
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Summary
Ann Sutton is the wife of a renowned psychoanalyst,
who is somehow oblivious to her incipient mental derangement. Leaving a
department store one day, she is about to be detained for shoplifting
when a smooth-talking stranger, Dr Korvo, intervenes. A
hypnotherapist, Korvo offers to help Ann to overcome her kleptomaniac
impulses, but another woman Theresa Randolph, warns her that he is a
dangerous man. A short while later, Theresa is dead, apparently
murdered by Ann. The man who had most to gain from the killing
was Korvo, but at the time of the murder he was in hospital, and so he
couldn’t possibly be the murderer - or could he...?Review
Whirlpool would be a very
respectable film noir were it not for the brazen absurdity of its
storyline (which stretches credibility so far beyond breaking point
that you would be well advised to wear a safety helmet)
and some equally implausible characterisation. Fortunately, there
are some saving graces - the appropriate noir cinematography lends the
film a mood of tangled intrigue and dark menace which helps to distract
the viewer from the hideous plot contrivances, and Gene Tierney - her
second collaboration with director Otto Preminger, after the
superb Laura
(1944) - brings a touch of class which adds greatly to the film's
enjoyment value. The best performance comes from
José Ferrer, who, as the sinister Dr Korvo, exudes an aura of
villainous charm which is both irresistibly seductive and deeply
disturbing, not unlike a cross between Noel Coward and Peter Lorre. Not a great film, but certainly one that scores
highly in the entertainment stakes.
© James Travers 2008 
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