On W List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
Whirlpool (1950)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
11/23
11/23:
Whirlpool is an imbalanced film noir with a weak ending.
I thought it would be well-directed because of Otto Preminger. Well, he did get good performances out of
everybody for some while. Unfortunately, Gene Tierney's "But I didn't do it! I don't remember!" act started to wear thin,
ultimately losing my sympathy. José Ferrer turned out to be cartoonish in the long run while Richard Conte proved why he
could never be a major star. Charles Bickford would only grunt, wanting to go to bed already.
At first, the longer David Korvo talked in a manipulative way, the more I was being reminded of
Gaslight, but the movie
took off as soon as Ann Sutton got set up for murder, hence the apt title Whirlpool. I became enraptured by how she was
going to get out of it with her husband doing what he could do logically. Then, the ending came which is a face palm.
So, the writers, Ben Hecht and Andrew Solt, couldn't come up with something believable? It's like they got lazy and decided
to piss the whole thing away. Korvo manages to hypnotize himself so he can will himself to walk away after a major
gall bladder operation? Colton, all of a sudden, decides to have the Suttons at the house, and everybody happens to meet
there at the same time...at such a late hour? Korvo shows himself in order to be easily captured when he should've taken
the recording and left the house pronto? It's all patently ridiculous to me.
All in all, despite the crap about the science of hypnotism, Whirlpool works well in spots, but
everybody dropped the ball big time during the ending.