Sunday, May 2, 2010

Hidden Eye (1945)

Edward Arnold returns to the role of Captain Duncan Maclain, a former police detective forced to retire when he became blind. Blindness didn't stop Maclain's pursuit of bad guys, he just moved from being a public cop into being a private detective. Maclain previously appeared in the film Eyes in the Night (see yesterdays film), a wartime mystery where he battled Axis spies. Its a super thriller that should have launched a series, instead of a single sequel (this film) three years later.

Here Maclain is hired by a young woman to find out who is killing off her family. The murders appear to be timed with the appearance of a beau in the woman's life. The murders also seem to be linked to what happened years before in Sumatra.

The mystery is less then mysterious since the choice of real suspects number two, and odds are you'll choose the right one(lets face it even the movie gives up with any notion of mystery half way in). A good little film that works purely on the basis of the performances, and in the case of this film its enough.

Actually its more than enough with Arnold's Maclain being absolutely a joy to behold. He may be blind but its clear he's light years ahead of everyone around him. I still can't believe that MGM never went further with the series. You really should see this if you like mystery thrillers. Not quite as good as the earlier film, but its still a damn fine mystery.

I'm not sure about availability since I picked this up from a dealer at a nostalgia show.

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