Whirlpool **** (1949, Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, José Ferrer, Charles Bickford, Barbara O’Neil, Eduard Franz) – Classic Movie Review 3391

Otto Preminger is reunited with his Laura (1944) star Gene Tierney for the thoroughly enjoyable 1949 film noir murder mystery Whirlpool. 

Producer-director Otto Preminger is reunited with his Laura (1944) star Gene Tierney for the thoroughly enjoyable, if admittedly artificial and far-fetched 1949 film noir murder mystery Whirlpool.

She plays Ann Sutton, the beautiful kleptomaniac wife of a successful psychiatrist, Dr Bill Sutton (Richard Conte). José Ferrer plays David Korvo, an urbane but cold, calculating and dangerous clairvoyant, who says that he will help when Ann gets caught shoplifting, but instead wants to fleece her financially and frames her for a killing that he has committed.

There is plenty of suspense in the Spellbound-style yarn and plenty of atmosphere and tension in Preminger’s polished direction. Tierney and Conte are excellent and Ferrer is a standout in a hypnotically chilling portrayal of villainy.

Much less well known than Laura, Whirlpool is well worth seeking out. Blacklisted Ben Hecht (writing under a pseudonym as Lester Barstow) helps Andrew Solt to adapt Guy Endore’s novel.

Also in the cast are Charles Bickford as Lt. James Colton, Barbara O’Neil as Theresa Randolph, Eduard Franz as Martin Avery, Constance Collier as Tina Cosgrove, Ruth Lee, Fortunio Bonanova as Feruccio di Ravallo, Ian MacDonald, Bruce Hamilton, Alex Gerry, Larry Keating, Mauritz Hugo and John Trebach.

As the 2015 film Trumbo reveals, Preminger proved a hero in eventually busting the blacklist by employing Dalton Trumbo as screen-writer of Exodus (1960) and giving him an on-screen credit under his real name (along with Kirk Douglas who did the same as producer of Spartacus).

The police station interrogation room is decorated with calendars from Pierce Brothers Mortuary and Inglewood Park Cemetery!

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3391

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