Wikipedia

Obsession(1949 film)

Obsession,released in the United States asThe Hidden Room,is a 1949 Britishcrime filmdirected byEdward Dmytryk.[1]It is based on the 1947 novelA Man About a DogbyAlec Coppel,who also wrote the screenplay for the film.[2]Obsessionwas entered into the1949 Cannes Film Festival.[3]

Obsession
Theatrical release poster (USA)
Directed byEdward Dmytryk
Screenplay byAlec Coppel
Based onA Man About a Dog
by Alec Coppel
Produced by
StarringRobert Newton
Sally Gray
Phil Brown
Naunton Wayne
CinematographyC. M. Pennington-Richards
Edited byLito Carruthers
Music byNino Rota
Production
company
Independent Sovereign Films
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors
Release date
  • 3 August 1949(1949-08-03)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot

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Clive Riordan, a wealthy Londonpsychiatrist,learns that his wife Storm is romantically involved with Bill Kronin, an American. He resolves to exact revenge on both by committing the perfect murder of Kronin.

After kidnapping Kronin at gunpoint, Riordan keeps him prisoner for months in a hidden room accessed from a nearby garage while authorities mount a search for the missing American. During one of his daily visits to bring food and supplies, Riordan is unknowingly trailed by his dog Monty. Fearing that Monty might lead others to the secret location, Riordan resolves to keep the dog with Kronin. The doctor reveals to Kronin that he plans to kill him and dissolve his corpse in an acid bath.

Riordan's plan appears to be succeeding until Superintendent Finsbury fromScotland Yardvisits the doctor's office. Finsbury claims to be investigating the missing dog, but as the conversation drifts to the Kronin case it becomes clear that Finsbury harbors suspicions about Riordan.

Feeling the noose tightening, Riordan decides it’s time to act and poisons Kronin, only to discover that he has trained Monty to empty the acid bath by pulling the plug chain. The police find Riordan’s car in the garage, which leads them to the hidden room and Kronin’s body. Realizing his plan has failed, Riordan resigns himself to his fate. Finsbury arrives to arrest him, revealing that Kronin survived and that Riordan has escaped a charge of murder.

Cast

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Background

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Alec Coppelwrote the story as a play when he was living inSydneyduring World War II. He adapted it into a novel while travelling to London. Coppel titled the play and the novelA Man About a Dog,[4]but in the United States, the novel was titledOver the Line.

The play opened in London in April 1946[5]and the novel was published in 1948, although many critics commented that the novel felt similar to a play.[6][7]Another production of the play was staged in London in May 1949.[8]

Production

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Film rights were acquired by the British producer Noel Madison. He also bought the rights to two other thrillers,Four Hours to KillbyNorman KrasnaandThe Last MilebyJohn Wexley.[9]

The film's director Edward Dmytryk, had recently left Hollywood following his appearance before theHouse Un-American Activities Committee.[10]He travelled to England in mid-1948 and was granted a work permit by the Ministry of Labour under the foreign directors' quota agreement between producers and the film industry's trade unions. He signed a contract to direct the film with Nat Bronstein of Independent Sovereign Films on 1 October 1948.[11]

Filming took place near Grosvenor House and Coppel's home, which was converted into a temporary dressing room.[12]

Dmytryk went over the script with Coppel at a hotel at Lake Annecy. He later said Bronstein wanted a part in the film for his opera singing girlfriend, Marushka, and the producer was upset when one could not be found.[13]

Dmytryk says Robert Newton had to place a £20,000 bond guaranteeing his sobriety during production which went for 30 days. The director says Newton only started drinking on the last day of filming.[14]

The plot involves disposing a body by dissolving it in acid. Because this appeared to have similarities to the case of the murdererJohn Haigh,theBritish Board of Film Censorsinitially refused to grant the film a certificate and its release was delayed.[15]

Reception

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Dymytryk later wrote the film "was eventually released to good reviews and decent box-office returns. But it was seven months before the film was in the bag, and in those seven months, Jean and I learned how to triumph over adversity—at least temporarily—kept afloat by a weird mixture of grief and happiness, of love and anxiety, but never hope. Still, it was a period of small victories that permits us to remember it with a certain nostalgia, and when compared to the year and a half that followed, it was a picnic."[16]

Critical

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Varietywrote that the film is slow-paced at first but becomes suspenseful.[17]The New York Timescalled it "a first-rate study in suspense and abnormal psychology."[18]

In 1993, Kendal Patterson of theLos Angeles Timesdescribed the film as an early predecessor ofFatal Attraction.[19]

References

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  1. ^Hal Erickson(2012)."Obsession".Movies & TV Dept.The New York Times.Archived fromthe originalon 5 February 2012.Retrieved5 May2011.
  2. ^"New Novels of the Week on the Good Earth".The Argus.Melbourne. 3 January 1948. p. 22.Retrieved4 September2012– via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^"Festival de Cannes: Obsession".festival-cannes.com.Retrieved10 January2009.
  4. ^"Sydney's Talking About—".The Sydney Morning Herald.3 July 1947. p. 14.Retrieved20 June2015– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^"VARIETY".The Truth.Sydney. 3 March 1946. p. 32.Retrieved20 June2015– via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^"New Novels of the Week on the Good Earth".The Argus.Melbourne. 3 January 1948. p. 22.Retrieved20 June2015– via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^"New Fiction".The Sydney Morning Herald.24 April 1948. p. 6.Retrieved20 June2015– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^"Production of A Man About A Dog | Theatricalia".theatricalia.com.
  9. ^Schallert, E. (4 May 1948). "Pal dreams of unique glamour star reunion".Los Angeles Times.ProQuest165832783.
  10. ^THOMAS F BRADY HOLLYWOOD.. (4 September 1949). "HOLLYWOOD WIRE: Dmytryk Reports on His Year in England -- Story for Sale -- 'Annie' Goes Again".New York Times.p. 47.
  11. ^"Dmytryk Inked to Direct British Film",Variety6 October 1948 p 2
  12. ^"HOME AS DRESSING ROOM FOR ACTORS".The Truth.Sydney. 12 December 1948. p. 34.Retrieved20 June2015– via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^Dmytryk p 110-112
  14. ^Dmytryk p 113
  15. ^"Film of Austn. novel held up".The News.Adelaide. 27 April 1949. p. 16.Retrieved20 June2015– via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^Dmytryk, Edward (1995).Odd man out: a memoir of the Hollywood Ten.Southern Illinois University Press. p. 105.
  17. ^"Review: 'Obsession'".Variety.1949.Retrieved15 February2015.
  18. ^"THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'The Hidden Room,' British-Made Psychological Drama, Opens at Broadway Embassy".The New York Times.9 January 1950.Retrieved15 February2015.
  19. ^Patterson, Kendal (19 August 1993)."'Hidden Room': Terror With a Twist ".Los Angeles Times.Retrieved15 February2015.
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Notes

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