The Man In The Net (1959)

An ex-commercial artist (Alan Ladd) has left his New York life for the Connecticut countryside where he can paint. His alcoholic and promiscuous wife (Carolyn Jones) hates the monotony of country life and wants to move back to New York. When she disappears, her husband is suspected of her murder. Based on the novel by Hugh Wheeler and directed by Michael Curtiz (CASABLANCA). An intriguing premise is sabotaged by a contrived screenplay. For some weird reason, children are dragged into the mixture and become accomplices in Ladd's attempt to prove himself innocent and it all just seems phony and ludicrous. Plus upper class Connecticut suburbanites are portrayed as ignorant vigilantes as much as those superstitious villagers who stormed Frankenstein's castle with torches. I had a certain empathy for Carolyn Jones's unhappy housewife stuck in suburbia and when she disappears, the movie becomes less interesting. With Diane Brewster, Charles McGraw, John Lupton, Susan Gordon, Kathryn Givney and Edward Binns.