Starring:
Year of Release: 1941
Rated: Not Rated
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone
Approx. Running Time: 82 minutes
Format(s): DVD
My Rating: 3 stars (Out of 5)
From Back Cover:
"A superlative mystery film."
-THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
Film noir, a classic film style of the '40s and '50s, is noted for its dark themes, stark camera angles and high-contrast lighting. Comprising many of Hollywood's finest films, film noir tells realistic stories about crime, mystery femmes fatales and moral conflict.
In this tense noir thriller, Victor Mature plays Frankie Christopher, a sports promoter who's in the hot seat, relentlessly grilled by a ruthless detective after the murder of a fashion model (Carole Landis) he made famous. Weighing even more heavily against him is the fact that he's in love with the dead girl's sister (Betty Grable). But Frankie's not the only suspect in this taut exposé of New York's café society. The detective also obsessively pursues Frankie's partner, a gossip columnist, and a hotel night clerk. Filled with plot twists and turns, I Wake Up Screaming will have you guessing until its surprising ending.
My Comments:
This classic noir was an entertaining film with an interesting plot and passable (but not great) acting. The film centers around the murder of an aspiring young model and the various people suspected of the crime. As each possible killer is presented, the movie effectively leads the viewer astray from the truth a time or two before revealing the real killer and motive. Overall, worth a watch, but the film does have one major drawback - its brevity. Clocking in at only 80 minutes, the film has to keep a good pace, but such a short amount of time leaves little room for character development. There are simply too many characters and too much going on to allow the viewer to make much of a connection.
Probably closer to a 3.5.
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Not Rated (MPAA)
3 Stars
1940s (Year Of Release)
Drama
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