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Saturday, October 2, 2010

Midnight Lace (1960)

A combination of glamorous soap opera and woman in peril thriller. A wealthy American heiress (Doris Day) in London is being stalked by an unseen maniac who calls to leave death threats. The problem is no one believes her as no one has heard the phone calls but her and even when she is mysteriously pushed in front of a moving bus, there's only her word for it that the psycho exists. This being a Ross Hunter production, Day is clothed, coiffed and bejeweled to a dazzling perfection. Day's foray into heavy duty drama were rare but she had a great talent for hysteria as she showed in her one great scene in Hitchcock's MAN WHO KNEW TO MUCH and most of her performance here is played at that pitch. David Miller (LONELY ARE THE BRAVE) directs, Russell Metty is responsible for the photography and there's an effective score by the always welcome Frank Skinner. With Rex Harrison as Day's husband, John Gavin (whose accent is so ineffective that it was half way through the movie before I realized he was playing an Englishman), Myrna Loy, Roddy McDowall, Herbert Marshall, John Williams, Natasha Parry, Rhys Williams and Joan Staley.

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