High wall

The editor-in-chief of the Brattle Press religious publishing house, elegant Willard I. Whitcomb ( Herbert Marshall ) leaves the bar and returns to his office. Whitcomb's secretary informs him that his assistant Helen Keneth ( Dorothy Patrick ) went to his house to pick up the manuscript and is unlikely to return to work today because her husband returned after a two-year business trip and the secretary gave him the address of Whitcomb's apartment.

Stephen Kenneth ( Robert Taylor ) rushes in the car at full speed, next to him on the seat is the limp and lifeless body of his young beautiful wife Helen. Hearing the sound of a police siren, Stephen, in despair, crashes out of the road into a shallow river, probably trying to commit suicide. Immediately after the accident, the police detained him and quickly established that Helen did not die as a result of the accident, but was strangled. Suspicion of the murder falls on Stephen, who allegedly killed his wife, and then arranged an accident to pass off the murder as an accident. In the police, Stephen confesses to the murder of his wife, but does not remember any details of what happened. It turns out that during the Second World War he was a bomber pilot and was awarded military awards, and after the war he served for two years in civil aviation in Burma , earning money for his family. Since Stephen suffers from memory lapses caused by wounds received in the war, he is sent for a psychiatric examination to a local hospital.

Upon registration in a psychiatric hospital, it turns out that Stephen has a 6-year-old son, Richard, who lives with his grandmother. At the consultation, doctors, among them the attractive and business Anne Lorrison ( Audrey Totter ), studying an X-ray of Stephen’s head, notice a blood clot in the frontal part, which, they conclude, can cause psychological and physical changes, including headaches, sudden mood swings and temporary memory loss. To cure Stephen, neurosurgical intervention is required, but Stephen, who has already undergone two such operations before, refuses to give consent to another operation, and he is placed in a psychiatric hospital.

The assistant district attorney, David Wallace ( John Ridgeley ), believes that Stephen is refusing surgery because his current status as a patient in a psychiatric hospital frees him from legal responsibility and, if he is cured, he will be brought to trial on murder charges. Ann says that if the patient refuses the operation, then consent can be obtained from his mother. Anne and Wallace head to Stephen's house to his mother, finding her dead on the living room floor. On the second floor of the house, they find lonely Richard in a state of shock. Stephen's mother, as it soon turns out, had a weak heart, and she died after learning about the death of her daughter-in-law and the subsequent accusation of her son for murder.

Anne takes Richard to his home and draws up temporary guardianship over him. However, when meeting with Stephen, Ann tells him that Richard will be sent to an orphanage. Richard, meanwhile, dreamed of giving his son a good upbringing and education, and in many ways earned money in Burma for this. However, as long as he is considered insane and in a psychiatric hospital, Richard will not be able to use his money and send his son to a good boarding school. As Ann explains to him, the only way to regain the right to dispose of his funds is to recover from the disease through surgery. In addition, as Anne explains, surgery is the only way for Stephen to return to normal. Otherwise, he will be doomed to spend the rest of his days in a psychiatric hospital. Stephen agrees to the operation, which in general is successful, but he is unable to restore in memory what happened on the night of the assassination of Helen. Doctors conduct the last tests with Stephen, preparing him for appearing in court.

Meanwhile, Henry Cronner ( Vince Barnett ), the elevator of the house in which Whitcomb lives, makes it clear that he has information about who killed Helen, demanding money for his silence. Whitcomb at first pretends not to understand what is at stake, but then agrees to pay Kronner the treatment of his arthritis and relocation to Florida . Meanwhile, at the next meeting, when Kronner, standing on a chair, repairs the elevator mechanism, Whitcomb clings with an umbrella handle to the chair leg, as a result of which Kronner falls into the elevator shaft and crashes to death.

The death of Kronner makes Steven think that maybe he didn’t kill his wife, and pushes him to find out the circumstances of Helen’s death. On the recommendation of Anne Stephen agrees to undergo a drug synthesis session. Under the influence of the serum of truth, Stephen begins to recall that his marriage with Helen was a military romance, and he really did not manage to recognize her as a person, only later realizing that she was worried not so much the happiness of the family as material wealth and personal comfort. It was under her pressure that after the war, Stephen was forced to abandon the low-paid teaching work at the university that he had dreamed of, and to go to Burma for an unpleasant job. However, in his absence, Helen did not take up the house and her son, but got a job with Whitcomb. Then he recalls how, having returned from Burma, he went to his wife to work, and from there went to the apartment at Whitcomb at the address received in the office. The door to Whitcomb’s apartment was opened to him by Helen, who was there alone, and kept herself at home. Immediately realizing that Helen had an affair with Whitcomb, in a fit of jealousy, Stephen pounced on Helen and began to strangle her, but fell, and from that moment on, there was complete darkness in his mind. When he regained consciousness, he discovered Helen was already dead in his car.

On this Stephen ends the memory and as if begins to fall asleep, after which Ann leaves him and goes home. However, getting into her car, she is surprised to find there Stephen, who hid in the back seat. He forces her to go to Whitcomb’s apartment to recall all the details of what happened on the night of the murder. Entering the apartment, Stephen arranges all the things exactly as they did that evening, noting that a suitcase with Helen’s personal belongings disappeared from the apartment, which means that Whitcomb secretly threw it away after Stephen’s visit. They leave the apartment, leaving everything as it was on the night of the murder, which, according to Stephen, should cause Whitcomb to panic. Indeed, seeing the situation in the apartment, Whitcomb suggests that Stephen remembered the circumstances of that day. In a panic, the editor contacts the travel company and orders a ticket to Mexico, intending to escape. However, soon the owner of the publishing house called him, offering the post of vice president and member of the board of directors, after which Whitcomb changed his plans. The next day, Whitcomb arrives at Stephen's hospital, and during the conversation begins to provoke him, saying that he killed both Helen and Kronner, who saw how Whitcomb went into the house after Stephen left, and then brought out a suitcase with Helen's belongings . Stephen becomes furious and pounces on Whitcomb, which he counted on. The orderlies twisted Stephen and placed in a solitary ward. However, using his trusting relationship with Anne, Stephen manages to escape from the chamber by grabbing the keys to her car. The police are beginning to raid him throughout the city, but Stephen is deceiving the police by first taking a false route to the state border and then changing his car.

In the end, Stephen gets to Whitcomb's house, which is surrounded by police. Near the house, he notices Anne, and, having deceived the police, penetrates the house with her. At this point, erroneous information arrives that Stephen was detained at the state border, and the police are unprotecting Whitcomb's apartment. After the cops leave, Stephen and Ann go into his apartment, and while Stephen holds him, Ann introduces him the truth serum. In the presence of the police, Whitcomb confesses that he killed Helen, who threatened to ruin his career if he did not marry her. The police let go of Stephen, and he returns home, where Ann leads Richard. Stephen and Ann look at the boy and hug, dreaming of living together.

Director Curtis Bernhardt was born and began a creative career in Germany , before fleeing the Nazis first to France and then to the United States , where he directed more than 20 films in the 1940s and 50s, the melodramas Stolen Life are most famous among them (1946 ), “ My Reputation ” (1946), “ Payment on Demand ” (1951) and “ Blue Veil ” (1951) ^[5] . Bernhard's noir works include The Obsessed (1947) with Joan Crawford and two films with Humphrey Bogart - Conflict (1945) and Sirocco (1951) ^[2] . The film was written by Sidney Boehm and Lester Cole . Boehme is probably best known as the screenwriter of the film Noir Fritz Lang's “The Great Heat ” (1953), as well as many other noirs, including Lane (1950), Mysterious Street (1950), Union Station (1950 ), The Swindling Police Officer (1954) and Cruel Saturday (1955). Cole wrote the scripts for such films as The House of the Seven Gables (1940), Among the Living (1941), Steps in the Dark (1941), Blood in the Sun (1945) and Target Burma (1945) ) ^[2] .

Robert Taylor worked at the Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer studio "most of all stars (phenomenal 25 years, 1934-1959), enjoying a long and varied career" ^[6] . According to Tule, “at the beginning of his career, the studio positioned Taylor as a beautiful lead actor, whose appearance was exploited in romantic roles and costume dramas paired with dynamic actresses such as Irene Dunn (“ Magnificent Passion ”, 1935), Greta Garbo (“ Camilla “, 1937) and Vivien Leigh ( Waterloo Bridge , 1940). Although these films helped him become a major box office star, critics rejected him as just another pretty face that lacked depth for anything else. ” Tul continues: “This continued until the early 1940s, when Taylor switched to tougher, more mature roles, in particular in the film“ Johnny Eager “(1942), where he played a negative and at the same time attractive gangster, or “ Bataan ” (1943), where he played a brave military sergeant who heroically dies with his sparkling machine gun, or “ Underwater Current ” (1946), where he played the husband Katherine Hepburn and a possible murderer ” ^[6] . Taylor later played in such noir films as “ Bribe ” (1949), “ Scam Police Officer ” (1954) and “ Party Girl ” (1958) ^[7] . Audrey Totter, a veteran of the film noir, has played in 13 films of the genre, the most significant of which are “The Postman Always Calls Twice ” (1946), “ Out of Suspicion ” (1947), “ Lady in the Lake ” (1947), “ Substitution ” (1949), “ Alias ​​Nick Beale ”(1949),“ Tension ”(1949) ^[8] .

According to Brophy, “ Herbert Marshall was an English character actor and workhorse on stage and on screen, among his many paintings“ Letter “(1940) by William Wyler with Bette Davis and“ Angel Face “(1952) Otto Preminger as father the real troubled daughter played by Gene Simmons. ” ^[2] Marshall also starred in such significant films as “ Trouble in Paradise ” (1932) by Lubich , “ Foreign Correspondent ” (1940) by Hitchcock , “ Little Chanterelles ” (1941) by Wheeler, “ Moon and Penniless ” (1942) and “ On the Edge of the Blade” "(1946) Goulding , as well as in the film noir" Ivy "(1947) and" Criminal History "(1950) ^[9] .

Tool noted that “one of the momentous moments about this film” was that it turned out to be “troublingly connected with the Hollywood witch hunt, which was launched by the US Congress Anti-American Commission of Inquiry in the late 1940s and early 1950s. x years ” ^[6] . As stated on the website of the American Film Institute , “the film was the last script that Lester Cole wrote before he was called to the Commission’s hearing in November 1947 to testify on suspicions of a communist introduction to the film industry” ^[4] . Tool writes that “Cole was one of the famous Hollywood Ten , a group of screenwriters and directors who refused to testify when they were called to the Commission’s hearing about their possible involvement in communist activities.” Cole was indeed “a staunch communist and founding member of the Left Screenwriters Guild , and he was identified as a subversive screenwriter. However, on the basis of the first amendment, he refused to testify, for which, in the end, he was accused of contempt of Congress and sentenced to a year in prison ” ^[6] , as well as blacklisted ^[4] . The American Film Institute notes that “this film was the last mention of Cole in the credits under his real name, he later wrote scripts under pseudonyms” ^[4] . Brophy adds that “For most of the 1950s, Cole was unemployed, although he later wrote the script (under a pseudonym) for the highly successful film Born Free (1966) ^[2] .

Unlike Cole, “ Robert Taylor was a convinced Republican , and along with his then-wife Barbara Stenwick was a member of the Cinema Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, ” which was created to counter the spread of communist ideas in the film industry ^[6] . On October 22, 1947, Taylor testified at a meeting of the Commission on the Investigation of Anti-American Activities, where he "made it clear that communism seeped into the film industry, mainly through screenwriters," and stated that "they should be carefully monitored." When Taylor was asked to name one of the Communists among Hollywood screenwriters, he called Lester Cole ” ^{[6] [4]} .

Overall rating of the film

After the film was released, critics gave him generally positive feedback. In particular, Variety magazine concluded that “the film is gaining a high score as one of the strongest works of the psycho-melodrama cycle. Unfolding reliably and with almost clinical attention to detail, the film is interesting, energetic and effective throughout ” ^[10] . The newspaper The New York Times noted that “as a pure melodrama using modern psychotherapy, the High Wall is expected to be full of horrors, pathologically painful and cynical in a social sense” ^[3] .

The modern film historian noir Spencer Selby called this picture “a stylish, noir thriller typical of the late 1940s” ^[11] , and Brophy described it as a “little-known noir melodrama that ... delivers true pleasure”, and as “high-quality noir which definitely deserves to be watched. ” The critic noted that “like so many noirs of 1946–47, the Great Wall shows a world that has become frustrated, in which betrayal and distrust have become commonplace” ^[2] . Butler believes that “this is a good film noir that benefits from excellent acting as a favorite of women’s favorite Robert Taylor ” ^[12] , and Michael F. Keeney called him “a tense psychological thriller with an excellent Taylor play as a mentally unhealthy murder suspect, and an experienced in the noir genre, Totter delights in the role of a stiff psychiatrist, whose interest in his patient seems to go beyond the professional ” ^[1] .

Critical of the film, Dennis Schwartz called it “a languid and talkative psychological melodrama, which is decorated with a black and white noir visual series, skillfully executed by the cameraman Paul Vogel” ^[13] . According to Schwartz, “the main drawback of the film is that it never becomes convincing as a detective story, but as a romantic story it looks more like a Hollywood fantasy than something real.” The film’s credibility is added by the fact that “truth serum is too easily accepted as a means of establishing the truth”, and that “brain surgery can so easily cure the hero of his mental disorder” ^[13] .

Stylistic features of the film

As the modern historian of the genre, film noir Alan Silver , notes “ Bernhardt seems to have been fascinated by thrillers with psychological overtones,” as well as his French film “ Crossroads ” (1938), as well as the films noir “ Conflict ” (1945) ) and " Obsessed " (1947). "According to Silver," a straightforward story that in general the usual melodrama decorated nuarovoy mise en scene , supported by the excellent camera work Vogel and high quality studio production of " Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ." A narration of the Main a hero and single machine images on dark, wet from rain the streets reinforce the provisions of the foundation stories romanticism of the hero with his therapist and provide an objective correlate with his personal despair " ^[14] . Toole said that" the film was shot in the classical tradition of film noir "According to him," Bernhardt gives him a strong sense of style, complemented by wet streets from rain, claustrophobic apartments, turbulent whirlpools of flashbacks and restless subjective frames that emphasize the chaotic and often gloomy the atmosphere of the film ” ^[6] . According to Brophy, the film “includes many typically noir topics”, including “a returning World War II veteran with problems adapting to post-war civilian life, an unfaithful wife, mental illness, murder and details of a police investigation, and duplicity of respected members of society who outwardly they seem to be honest citizens, but in reality they are corrupt and criminal. ” In addition, “the rich, deep blackness that envelops the film is delightful both visually and metaphorically.” And although “the Production Code required that evil be punished, the dominant atmosphere of the film creates a view of the world as a gloomy, not promising good place, full of cynical and corrupt hypocrites, in which several honest people are faced with insurmountable stakes in the desire to survive” ^{[2 ]} .

Comparison with Other Noir Movies

In its review of the film, the New York Times drew attention to the fact that in recent years “not a single Christmas is complete without the appearance of at least one good psycho-neurotic” thriller, such as this, “the action of which takes place in a hospital for crazy people in all his joys ”, to which in this case is added“ a couple of juicy murders and a few chatty mentally ill people ” ^[3] . Andrew Spicer and Tim Brophy note that the theme and plot of the film is reminiscent of the film Noir Blue Dahlia (1946) with Alan Ladd in the title role, in which “the hero soldier who returned from the front is accused of killing his unfaithful wife” ^{[15] [2 ] ]} . Brophy continues: “Like Blue Dahlia, the film shows a world that stinks with decay, and where everyone has a price.” Further comparing the two films, Brophy writes: “ Taylor as an actor is better than Ladd, directing and camera work are also better than in Dahlia ... Both films are good noir, but it seems to me that the High Wall is a little better” ^[2] . Critics also noted that the High Wall “was an attempt by Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer to duplicate Bernhard’s success, which he achieved with similar material on Warner Brothers by directing the movie Obsessed (1947), in which Joan Crawford played the schizophrenic who commits murder and does not remember about it ” ^[6] . Among other films noir, the plot of which to one degree or another is built around a memory failure in the hero, one can also name “ Crossroads ” (1942), “ Bewitched ” (1945), “ Somewhere in the Night ” (1946), “ Black angel ”(1946),“ The deadline is at dawn ”(1946),“ Fear at night ”(1947),“ Blow ”(1949) and many others ^[16] . In addition, Tool wrote that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer boss “ Louis B. Mayer, having seen how former romantic actor Ray Milland was able to convincingly play an alcoholic in a state of binge in Billy Wilder ’s dark film“ Lost Weekend ”(1945), decided that such a favorite of women as Robert Taylor will be able to play a mentally unhealthy war veteran. " Tool also noted that although “The High Wall” is not a film of the same level as Wilder’s film, nevertheless, Taylor produces an impressive game, which is greatly facilitated by the outstanding play of the entire ensemble ” ^[6] .

Evaluation of the work of the director and creative team

Variety Magazine noted the skillful leadership of the work on the film “ Robert Lord , which gave the melodramatic plot a high-quality producer shine” ^[10] . Butler drew attention to “some problems with the script, in particular, too many coincidences and reliance on the truth serum , which seems to be a ruse to resolve situations. But if we discard these limitations, the film works well. ” In particular, “Berhardt sets up with a confident hand and strives for maximum atmosphere and tension, which is helped by the magnificent dark, dark, dark shooting of Paul Vogel, which draws perspective from the shadows and shows the streets flooded with rain, which has an extremely strong effect” ^[12] .

According to Brophy, "the film is correctly directed by Curtis Bernhardt, another German director who fled from Nazi persecution to enrich the Hollywood canon with German film art ." However, “the real reason to watch this film is the deep rich blackness of camera work. Each mise-en-scenes seems carefully crafted and lovingly shot by Paul Vogel, who was the operator of Lady in the Lake that same year. Vogel’s other noir works include Crime Scene (1949), Black Hand (1950) and Dial 1119 (1950). ^[2]

Actor rating

Criticism praised the play of all the actors in the lead roles, especially the play of Robert Taylor . As Variety magazine wrote in its review: “Taylor is successful in this role, making it believable. Audrey Totter strongly declares herself in the role of a doctor, once again showing that by the degree of talent she is able to cope with almost any character. Herbert Marshall fits the role of a murderer who disguises his sin under the cover of a pious publisher of biblical treatises. G.B. Warner excitingly creates a touching image of the mentally ill ” ^[10] . The New York Times noted that “our old friend Robert Taylor has shown that he may look more frantic and fierce than any psycho we know” ^[3] .

Butler, a contemporary film expert, writes that “by this time, Taylor had already begun to attempt to play more serious roles, and the High Wall was one of his best achievements in this direction. This type of film requires a strong central role, which can roll from side to side, and which must rely on a strong and persistent artist who can carry the picture on his shoulders. Taylor is very well suited for this, balancing on the edge when necessary, but always moving away from the edge to maintain the focus of the film. ” He is assisted by Audrey Totter, "one of the main figures of the noir, who gets a rare chance to play a good woman here, not a femme fatale , coping with his task more than worthily." However, according to Butler, “even better is the wonderful Herbert Marshall , who gives the screen a truly memorable villain, terribly skilled in intrigue” ^[12] . Tool believes that for Taylor, the role in this film was established by “the tone of his best works in his future career - this is the tone of the film noir”. On the other hand, Totter, who has always been strong in film noir, this time played the role of “a handsome psychiatrist, achieving a convincing combination of determination and compassion,” and “courteous Herbert Marshall makes excellent use of his delivered voice and manners as the two-faced Whitcomb” ^{[6 ]} . Brophy also notes that “Totter, which does not need recommendations for fans of noir,” played “one of the few roles in this film, which evokes sympathy by playing the role of“ a chic woman with a golden heart, ”and“ Marshall is distinguished as a flattering and the hypocritical villain ” ^[2] . Silver also highlights Marshall’s play by writing that he “is equally adept both as a villain and as a victim, ambiguous to his portrayal of a boring Whitcomb, whose sexual passion destroys his desire to succeed in the most conservative of religious publishing.” And further: “The manner in which he kills Kronner, the witness of the murder, is one of those quivering noir scenes in which the murder is reduced to a simple hand gesture. At the moment when Kronner is fixing the elevator, Whitcomb, between times, clings the handle of his umbrella to the leg of the chair, pulling it and sending Kronner down to the elevator shaft ” ^[14] . Schwartz also praised Marshall’s game, which “creates the image of the insinuating villain who killed Helen because the scandal will ruin his chances of becoming a partner in a publishing house.” On the other hand, according to Schwartz, “the leading actors are competent, but too fresh to convince of the possibility of their novel, and Robert Taylor’s personal despair is more like fears from a soap opera than from a film noir” ^[13] .

• Alain Silver (Editor), Elizabeth Ward (Editor). Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition . - Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press, 1992 .-- ISBN 978-0-87951-479-2 .
• Spencer Selby. Dark City: The Film Noir . - Jeffeson, NC and London: McFarland & Co Inc, 1997 .-- ISBN 978-0-7864-0478-0 .
• Michael F. Keaney. Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940–1959 . - Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2010 .-- ISBN 978-0-7864-6366-4 .
• Andre Spicer, Helen Hanson. A Companion to Film Noir . - Chichester, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2013 .-- ISBN 978-1-1185-2371-1 .

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