One of the stranger films-noir
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Film and Television Discussion
Dire_Straits — 20 years ago(June 18, 2005 08:52 AM)
Anyone disagree? Probably in the top 10 strangest. I know a lot people haven't seen it - it's worth a look if you ever get the chance
Dire_Straits
lover of all B&W;
especially
film-noir -
The_Dying_Flutchman — 13 years ago(June 08, 2012 10:54 AM)
Strange? Perhaps, but only to those who are not familiar with "Nightmare Alley". As much as I like "High Wall", "Alley" is far stranger, still.
Reference is inscrutable because there is nothing to scrute. -
watchamacallit — 13 years ago(July 16, 2012 04:52 PM)
what was so strange about it? could you elaborate? and to the poster who compared it to Nightmare Alley, what is the base to your comparison? Alley is the far better picture with a much more morbid and ironic approach. High Wall was your usual "killer husband must clear his name" routine. the only strange part to me was the brain surgeries that they were conducting on inmates. but that might have been accurate at the time.
"Holy Bananas, It's a girl's Leg!" -
OhmsLaw — 11 years ago(August 17, 2014 07:47 AM)
It was on last night. The first thing I noticed was the unusual camera movements. For the scene where the front porch of the little boy's grandmother is shown with 2 newspapers and untouched bottles of milk, the camera looks at it like human eyes, taking everything in. It also had a lot of scenes in the mental hospital, which was not shown as a snake pit (not too much). I missed the beginning since I was asleep so it is too bad this almost forgotten (from what I am reading) noir was shown in the middle of the night, it was pretty good.
-
karnevilelp — 10 years ago(July 04, 2015 12:54 PM)
The comparison to
Nightmare Alley
doesn't really work for me, different themes really. As noted, this is a pretty typical "condemned murderer tries to prove his innocence" story, well done as it is. l liked it a lot, Robert Taylor gives a terrific performance, as do the supporting cast. As a lover of classical music, I felt bad for the guy in the asylum who likes Chopin and Beethoven, hahaha.
However, the ending was
fine, we get to see how Whitcombe offed Steve's wife and then Steve and Dr. Lorrison turn to each and start kissing. Just felt too pat, too easy.
