A Hitchcock type thriller without the élan we get from the master of suspense. Its post war foggy London and visiting playwright Philip Hannon (Van Johnson) is in a bitter mood. He is living in a luxurious suite by the Thames with a butler in his beck and call but when an ex fiancée (Vera Miles) visits him his mood is not lightened.
Things tense up when he overhears a plot in a pub to kidnap a child but the police do not take him seriously, not helped that he lacks detail because he has become blind, something he has tried to hide, hence the bitterness.
However with just Miles and the butler to help they try to track down the plotters but Hannon finds himself in danger.
With sumptuous art direction and sets, Technicolour and Vera Miles in the cast you can see why the Hitchcock comparisons are made. Van Johnson may be no James Stewart but he brings a style although he does seem a bit wooden here and there.
The finale does come across as rather absurd as our blind playwright puts himself in obvious peril but even with a capable director such as Henry Hathaway you can see that he lacks the touch to bring an extra dimension to this thriller.
Things tense up when he overhears a plot in a pub to kidnap a child but the police do not take him seriously, not helped that he lacks detail because he has become blind, something he has tried to hide, hence the bitterness.
However with just Miles and the butler to help they try to track down the plotters but Hannon finds himself in danger.
With sumptuous art direction and sets, Technicolour and Vera Miles in the cast you can see why the Hitchcock comparisons are made. Van Johnson may be no James Stewart but he brings a style although he does seem a bit wooden here and there.
The finale does come across as rather absurd as our blind playwright puts himself in obvious peril but even with a capable director such as Henry Hathaway you can see that he lacks the touch to bring an extra dimension to this thriller.