The House On Telegraph Hill (1951)

Shortly after WWII, a Polish immigrant (Valentina Cortese) emigrates to San Francisco. She marries a wealthy businessman (Richard Basehart) and lives in a mansion overlooking San Francisco Bay. But she is not who she seems. She has taken on the identity of a woman (Natasha Lytess) who died in a German concentration camp. Based on the novel THE FRIGHTENED CHILD by Dana Lyon and directed by Robert Wise (THE SAND PEBBLES). An excellent thriller with film noir atmosphere. Although the movie is referred to as film noir, I found it to be more of a damsel in distress thriller. The movie benefits from its San Francisco location shooting and the stylish B&W cinematography of Lucien Ballard (THE WILD BUNCH). As the beleaguered heroine, Cortese is attractively sympathetic and quite believable going from the happy emigrant wife to the distressed spouse fearing for her life. With William Lundigan, Fay Baker (in a nice ambiguous performance) and Steven Geray.