Spikeopath Alias Nick Beal (AKA: A few other titles...) is directed by John Farrow and adapted to screenplay by Jonathan Latimer from the Mindret Lord story. It stars Ray Milland, Audrey Totter, Thomas Mitchell and George Macready. Music is by Franz Waxman and cinematography by Lionel Lindon.It's the Faustian legend filmed through film noir filters as Thomas Mitchell's politician unwittingly makes a deal with Ray Milland's suspicious Nick Beal.Nicholas Beal - Agent.It's all fogs, smogs and smoky pubs here, it's 1949 and John Farrow and his team are having a great time of things blending Faust with politico machinations. Narrative thrust comes by way of corruption and character disintegration, sprinkled naturally with your good old cinematic staple of good versus evil in bold type. Don't touch him! He doesn't like it! Milland is superb here, his Nick Beal is the ultimate Machiavellian Mannipulator, and the chief film makers really bring these traits to the fore. Beal is a bundle of smug grins and glinting eyes, he just appears in scenes, Farrow cunningly using various props and persons to suddenly unleash his little old devil when he is least expected. Around Nicky there are subtle changes of clothes and snatches of dialogue that hit the requisite devilish notes, Totter is our darling who is caught in Old Nick's trap, Mitchell (great) even more so.The last time I was here was quite exciting. City was on fire. Picked up quite a lot of recruits that night. Made quite a transportation problem.Lionel Lindon and Franz Waxman are also key components to what makes the pic work. Waxman (Sunset Blvd.) deftly shifts between big bass drums for thunder clap effects, to delicate swirls that give off other worldly - eerie - effects. Lindon (I Want to Live!) does great work isolating the eyes in light, while his fog and shadows work wouldn't be amiss in a Val Lewton picture. This is a criminally under seen movie, it's far from perfect because the collage of genre influences give it a very unbalanced feel, but there's so much fun, spookiness and technical craft on show to make it a must see movie for fans of the stars, noir and supernatural tinged pictures. 8/10

Aaron Igay This is yet another take on the Faust tale. Other then perhaps the addition of a femme fatale the film really offers nothing new to the mix. Ray Milland as the devil is the only reason to sit through this, he really plays it cool and he is certainly a demon I'd want to make deals with. When a reporter asked the Welsh Milland at age 80 if he had any big plans he replied, ''Just to go home now and sit in my black leather chair and read. I've read everything, I think. I've got 3,000 books at home, and, believe it or not, I've read every one of them, including the Bible. It turned out to be a pretty dirty book.''With the great acting and script Alias Nick Beal is actually pretty enjoyable up until the conclusion. I don't know if the Hays Code demanded that they wrap it up in such an antiseptic fashion, but the ending was such puke it made me forget about anything good that may have come before.

noir guy This great supernatural noir hybrid deserves to be far better known and released on DVD (Wake up, Paramount!). Shadowy fixer Nick Beal (Ray Milland) is more than he appears to be (Check out his name for starters). When decent D.A. and seemingly "incorruptible enemy of the legions of evil" Joseph Foster (Thomas Mitchell) claims he'd sell his soul to put away an influential racketeer, saturnine Nick Beal gets on his case and subsequently smooths the way to a successful prosecution and, possibly, a path to the governor's office. But what does it profit a man if he gains the world but loses his soul? This modern dress morality play gives us an answer as well as proving to be a gripping tale of character and drama. Smoothly directed by John Farrow - whose previous film was also a noir with supernatural overtones, NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES (DVD release too please, 20th Century Fox), and who had directed Milland in the earlier more plot-oriented noir THE BIG CLOCK - and atmospherically filmed by Lionel Lindon (who later shot THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE), this is a gripping and unusual noir. Bolstering this offbeat generic tale are a clutch of great performances, particularly those of the saturnine Milland, tormented Thomas Mitchell and a touching Audrey Totter as the fallen angel waterfront lush enlisted by Beal to carry out the fleshier requirements of his plot. Given the era it was made, the Devil may not ultimately have all the best tunes here (which wasn't quite the case with Al Pacino's older Nick in the not altogether dissimilar THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE) but this is still an unusual and tangy take on personal, spiritual and political corruption that is highly recommended and deserves to be more widely seen. As I said, DVD release please, Paramount!

Lou Rugani Nick Beal (not his real name) has a haunting way of whistling in the fog, in which he seems at home. It's a symbol of the mystery of the man, which softly, like the fog itself, reveals itself to us. There are absorbing scenes involving Ray Milland's interplays with George Macready, Thomas Mitchell and Audrey Totter, and there is Franz Waxman's soundtrack score, all contributing to the mood of apprehension which prevails throughout in this quiet study of power. Anything said further here would reveal what we soon learn of .... well, of the man who whistles. Highly recommended.