Obsession (aka The Hidden Room) (1949)

Tired of his beautiful wife's (Sally Gray) infidelities, a psychiatrist (Robert Newton) vows to kill her latest lover (Phil Brown). He concocts the perfect murder plan ..... but will he get away with it? Based on the novel A MAN ABOUT A DOG by Alec Coppel (VERTIGO) (who also did the screenplay) and directed by Edward Dmytryk (THE CARPETBAGGERS). Dmytryk had a critical and commercial success with the film CROSSFIRE in 1947. But he was named as one of the Hollywood Ten by the House Un-American Activities Committee so he wasn't able to capitalize on that film's success and he fled to England and this was his first film there. I found it to be a marvelous thriller in the Hitchcock style (with a wee touch of Agatha Christie) and the cat and mouse game between Newton's obsessed husband and Scotland Yard builds in suspense. The acting is quite good, notably Phil Brown as the American lover but the film is stolen by a terrier called Monty, who has an important role in the narrative. The score is by Nino Rota. With Naunton Wayne as the Scotland Yard inspector on the case and James Harcourt.