Well, this was just the weirdest movie. I had high hopes during the opening credits with Alan Ladd's name in the cast and Michael Curtiz directing, but the story had just too many oddball elements in it. Like Ladd's character, John Hamilton, hanging out with young kids in the woods while he was painting. That would be a red flag today, although it did seem like the kids flocked to him rather than his encouraging them to hang around. Carolyn Jones looked every bit like Morticia Addams here, maybe it's this role that recommended her for the character in the mid-Sixties TV hit, 'The Addams Family'. Starting out, the plot seemed reasonable enough - an upwardly mobile wife becomes increasingly frustrated when her husband declines a well-paying job in New York City in order to pursue his passion, even though he's so far been unsuccessful at it. This leads to an affair on Carolyn's part, but the clandestine relationship ends in her murder, and all the clues point to her husband as the killer. The town folk of Stoneville, Connecticut wants to believe that John Hamilton is guilty, and what would have been appropriate for an 1880's era Western, they turn into a mob all set to lynch him without any proof and without even a corpse. Until her body is discovered in a shed buried under concrete, conveniently purchased by phone only days earlier under Hamilton's name.
Here's what I don't get - how is it that every kid in the neighborhood knows about the cave in the woods and none of their parents or town elders are aware of it after living there all those years? That didn't make sense to me. Nor did it make sense how Hamilton moved around freely in the neighborhood setting up the trap that would lead to the murderer? And why would the murdered woman 'hide' an incriminating audio tape underneath an outdoor staircase (if she had done it), to flush out the killer? Even crazier - who would ever think a calves liver sandwich with ketchup would be a tasty snack for the old guy hiding in the cave?
I don't know..., this could have been a pretty good murder mystery with a little more thought put into it. Ladd himself looked tired and disinterested most of the time, while Jones was monumentally over the top in her brief time on screen. Even though she had only a minor role, I did enjoy seeing Susan Gordon in the story as the young girl Angel helping Ladd's character. She appeared in one of my all-time favorite Twilight Zone episodes titled 'The Fugitive', which made it almost seem like this flick was directed by her father, Bert Gordon.
Here's what I don't get - how is it that every kid in the neighborhood knows about the cave in the woods and none of their parents or town elders are aware of it after living there all those years? That didn't make sense to me. Nor did it make sense how Hamilton moved around freely in the neighborhood setting up the trap that would lead to the murderer? And why would the murdered woman 'hide' an incriminating audio tape underneath an outdoor staircase (if she had done it), to flush out the killer? Even crazier - who would ever think a calves liver sandwich with ketchup would be a tasty snack for the old guy hiding in the cave?
I don't know..., this could have been a pretty good murder mystery with a little more thought put into it. Ladd himself looked tired and disinterested most of the time, while Jones was monumentally over the top in her brief time on screen. Even though she had only a minor role, I did enjoy seeing Susan Gordon in the story as the young girl Angel helping Ladd's character. She appeared in one of my all-time favorite Twilight Zone episodes titled 'The Fugitive', which made it almost seem like this flick was directed by her father, Bert Gordon.