have just seen this film for the 1st time *SPOILERS*

I don't know how I have missed seeing this film all my life, but I just saw it for the first time yesterday. I really enjoyed it, but had a few problems with it.

This may not be a very popular opinion and I don't mean to upset anyone but I didn't really like Humphrey Bogart in the role,; I don't think he was the right actor for it. He seemed gangster-like rather than the sort of man these women would want to be with. I'm not saying that Bogart wasn't a fantastic actor, just that he never got across what it was that they wanted in him as a person and I don't think he was the type of actor who should have played this part.

However, I think Bogie did a great job at the end when he realized his wife had figured everything out. I loved the great noir lighting and photography of his face in the study with the glass of milk, reading the newspaper headline, and formulating how he would murder her by strangulation. Someone else on this board has mentioned his hands in this scene. It reminded me of 'Nosferatu', the vampire film from the 1920's where Max Schreck walks as Dracula with his claw-like hands held before him.

I loved the actress who played the daughter, and kept thinking how sympathetic I was to her and yet how absolutely creepy she was. She seemed so independent, cold, and emotionless throughout the film; nothing seemed to phase her until her stepmother fainted in the artist's garret, and even then her reaction was modulated and overly articulate for a girl of her age. I kept thinking that a child in her position ought to be lonely and damaged and yet she seemed happy and unaffected by the strangeness going on around her. I felt though that if she were as intelligent as portrayed she ought to have seen evidence of her father's insanity and strange reactions to things (like the Van Gogh book) yet she never seemed to pick up things like that.

I kept thinking the daughter would be the one to finally figure things out and save her step-mother's life, and was surprised when this didn't happen!

I loved the housekeeper, but she was another character who I felt should have seen what was going on in the house and how crazy Bogart's character was. She seemed to be alert and full of common sense, yet we never had any hint that she was aware of the craziness around her.

Although I have these few misgivings about the film, I don't mean to put too much importance on them because overall I really enjoyed it and I give it some leeway because it is over 60 years old.




Noli illegitimi carborundum