Thursday, July 24, 2014

Fear No More (1961)

Director: Bernard Wiesen

Writers: Robert Bloomfield, Leslie Edgley

Composer: Paul Glass

Starring: Mala Powers, Jacques Bergerac, John Harding, Helena Nash, John Baer, Anna Lee Carroll, Robert Karnes, Peter Brocco, Peter Virgo Jr., Gregory Irvin, Emile Hamaty

More info: IMDb

Plot: Traveling by train from Los Angeles to San Francisco, a woman--recently released from psychiatric care--is accused of the murder of a woman found dead in her compartment. Arrested and taken off the train, she escapes custody and flees to her apartment, where she finds another murder victim. She realizes she is being set up, and sets out to find out who and why.

My rating:5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This is a whodonit that will keep you guessing until the last twenty minutes if she's the murderer or not.  Buuuuuuuut it's during that hour that takes so long to get through that makes you almost wish they'd started with it to save you the time.  There's a lot of drag and poor Mala Powers (as Sharon) for having to act like she's losing her mind for soooooo long.  I started to feel bad for her (the actress not the character).  Jacques Bergerac (as Paul, the guy she befriends who wants desperately to help her) is trying but it's not enough.  He's not so charismatic or engaging that it helps the problems of the pacing.  This could be a pretty good 45 minute episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE or even ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS as it kind of feels like Hitch would've touched it and made it better.  Say, there's an idea.  So far it's the worst of the four (of six) films in the 'Weird-Noir' DVD set from Something Weird Video.  The length and pacing kills it but it's not all that bad.  It's about like the movie poster...uninspiring.

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