12/3/2023 0 Comments Cry wolf movieThis movie shares the same feeling of overheated melodrama, and both films tend to disguise a mediocre script through the use of heavy atmosphere. I haven’t seen too much from director Peter Godfrey apart from the Bogart/Stanwyck feature The Two Mrs Carrolls. By the time the tale twists its way to the climax I reckon it would take a very savvy viewer to step around the pitfalls and reach the correct conclusion. It’s tempting to try to predict the outcome of this story and the trail is littered with clues and allusions, but there are various red herrings present too. The presence of a fragile, neurotic niece, the mysterious laboratory where Mark works late at night, and the awful, unacknowledged screams that echo along the corridors in the darkness all combine to drive Sandra to investigate further. She instinctively knows that something doesn’t ring true there are little details that niggle, but the main issue is the sinister atmosphere that hangs over everybody and everything. If Mark wants to find out a little more about Sandra’s assertions then that’s as nothing compared to her determination to dig deeper into the Caldwells’ past. The death of Sandra’s husband is accounted for in fairly vague terms, the casket has been sealed, and the entire household appear to be held in the grip of some nameless dread. Mark is naturally suspicious of this unexpected widow, but that feeling is reciprocated. His sudden departure means that Sandra now stands to inherit a substantial fortune, providing her claims bear scrutiny of course. It transpires that the dead man was extremely wealthy, his fortune held in trust and administered by Mark until he should turn 30 or marry. Sandra claims that she was married to the deceased, the nephew of Mark and the senator, and has come to see the instructions he left in his will are carried out. An interview with Mark Caldwell (Errol Flynn), the senator’s brother and head of the house, establishes the fact that Sandra has arrived at this place of mourning to pay her respects to her late husband. These two people are Senator Caldwell (Jerome Cowan) and Sandra Marshall (Barbara Stanwyck), and they’ve been racing through the countryside to attend a wake. Two figures, a man and a woman, alight and are admitted by the help. As the horse clears a boundary wall, the car pulls up in front of an imposing mansion. The opening has a breathless, intense quality: a black automobile hurtles along winding rural roads while a rider on horseback tracks along and ahead. I would term it a moderately or intermittently successful vehicle the plot is serviceable without being particularly remarkable, but the look of it all and the unexpected casting makes for interesting viewing. Cry Wolf (1947) is one of these vaguely old-fashioned yarns where mood and setting play a major role in maintaining the suspense. Such films rely heavily on atmosphere and a sustained level of tension that is hard to achieve in the age of lightning editing and a succession of jump-cut shocks. Old dark house movies seem to have lost a lot of their appeal I think they would have to be accompanied by significant quantities of gore to generate a lot of interest these days. The popularity of certain genres, or perhaps sub-genre is more accurate in this case, is always subject to change.
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