Alex da Silva Pharmacist Richard Basehart (Mr Quimby) loves his wife Audrey Totter (Mrs Quimby). However, these feelings aren't reciprocated and Totter spends most evenings with other men behind Basehart's back. He discovers what she is up to one evening but it is all too late and Totter moves into salesman Lloyd Gough's (Barney) Malibu beach house. Basehart suffers a further humiliation when he shows up to confront the couple and this leads him to plan his revenge of murder. He adopts a new identity and prepares to kill Gough. We do indeed get a murder.Basehart, Totter and Gough are all excellent in this film. Detective Barry Sullivan (Bonnabel) looks like Franchot Tone and narrates in parts. The story is effectively told and it is easy to follow. I'm not sure that there is much tension in this offering other than the moment one night when Basehart breaks into Gough's apartment and finds him asleep on a sofa. Will he kill him or won't he? What happens next provides the first surprise of the film before Sullivan's detective appears on the scene and starts playing characters against each other in order to discover what has been going on.It is made pretty clear that Sullivan is in control of what he is doing and there seem to be no surprises for him. What is more interesting is following the double life that Basehart has been leading and egging him on to get away with things. No-one falls for his trick of replacing his glasses and wearing contact lenses in order to disguise his appearance. How dumb to even suggest that he looks like a different person without at least sticking on a false moustache as well. The tension comes from Sullivan cranking up the deceptions in order to trip up the killer but it seems like he knows everything already. No tension. The guilty party is going to get caught. This is an easy-to-watch film with great dialogue delivery from Totter. She is quality in every scene that she is in, and Basehart is a likable chap to root for. As a teenager I had a friend whose house I visited a handful of times. Every time I went round to see him, his schizophrenic mother used to chat to me in the kitchen about how THEY replace the radiators in the house every time she goes out. After watching this film, I now believe her and I think I know who did it. As my wife is not in at the moment, I think I'll just go and replace all the furniture in the flat. Ha ha.

LCShackley This late-40s film noir has all the right ingredients: murder, a sleazy and deadly female (Totter, with a wonderful gamut of facial expressions), a female with a heart of gold (Charisse), a possibly corrupt cop (who functions as narrator), location shooting, and a wonderful jazzy score by Andre Previn with possibly THE most perfect "femme fatale" theme ever written. (When that sax starts to wail you know that your heart is about to be stomped flat.)Of course, there are lots of films with these ingredients, but what really makes this one tick is a great script. The writers manipulate your feelings about the characters, especially Quimby (Richard Basehart). Is he a sappy milquetoast? Or a killer? Or an adulterer? And what about that cop? Whose side is he on, anyway? One great twist after another leads to a very satisfying conclusion.I had never heard of this film, but it popped up on TMC and I'm glad I took the time to watch. I think it stands with the best of the genre.

RanchoTuVu While the film focuses on Richard Basehart's part as a jilted husband, it's actually Audrey Totter who turns out to be in the middle of the main plot. She plays his unsatisfied wife, unsatisfied financially and sexually with her penny-pinching and meek husband whom she had met while he was still in the military. It turns out that she has insatiable appetites. Unfortunately for the film, the emphasis is too much on Basehart's contrived plot to get even, though that has an unexpected and well-done twist to it, and not enough on the tawdry Audrey Totter. Is this her best film? I do not know, but it has to be up there. Not one to be restrained by the institution of marriage, she's no doubt had a few other affairs before she runs off with Lloyd Gough as Barney Deagher, a well-off liquor wholesaler who has a Malibu beach house and who later turns up dead. Cyd Charisse may have been a good dancer, but she waters down this film by being the good girl to make a stark comparison with Totter's character. Too bad because the film really could have been a darker and more interesting story if it had kept her out of it. I give it an 8 for Totter and Basehart, and a chance to see William Conrad.

GManfred Actually, it lacks a lot of things besides tension. The main thing it lacks is a believable storyline and asks the audience to take too much for granted. Spotting the plot holes is like playing 'Whack-a-mole'; as soon as you find one along comes another.The cast does the best they can with the thankless script. Richard Basehart plays the cuckolded husband and Barry Sullivan is the investigating detective, assisted by William Conrad. Cyd Charisse and Tom D'Andrea are also on hand in supporting roles.Starting a new paragraph for Audrey Totter, who plays Baseharts' slutty wife, a role she was born to play and which she played often in her career. Here she is at her rottenest (or best, depending on your viewpoint) and is a treat to watch, but even she can't save this one.This picture could have been so much better but was not written very well. As critic Kenneth Tynan put it, you have to suspend your disbelief as you watch a movie - can't do it with "Tension".