High Wall *** (1947, Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter, Herbert Marshall, Dorothy Patrick, H B Warner) – Classic Movie Review 5,698

Audrey Totter grabs a grand opportunity to shine in the 1947 film noir High Wall as a caring asylum doctor who wants to know whether her crazed patient (Robert Taylor) has murdered his wife.

Director Curtis Bernhardt’s 1947 film noir crime thriller High Wall provides Audrey Totter with a grand opportunity to shine as caring asylum Dr Ann Lorrison who wants to know whether her crazed patient Steven Kenet (Robert Taylor) has murdered his wife Helen (Dorothy Patrick) by strangling her.

Taylor’s brain is damaged and he admits to the killing – in a taut, excellent, noir-style little mystery movie, made by a director who knows how to do it, Curtis Bernhardt, keeping it tense and gripping.

Herbert Marshall plays nice old Willard I Whitcombe, who is another suspect, and there is a long list of first-class support actors of MGM worthies, all working hard to please.

Sydney Boehm and Lester Cole write the screenplay, based on a story by Alan R Clark and Bradbury Foote, based on the 1936 novel High Wall by Alan R Clark and the play Bradbury Foote.

Paul C Vogel shoots in noir-style black and white.

Also in the cast are H B Warner, Warner Anderson, Moroni Olsen, John Ridgely, Morris Ankrum, Elisabeth Risdon, Vince Barnett, Jonathan Hale, Charles Arnt, Ray Mayer, Bobby Hyatt, Irving Bacon, Frank Darien, Jack Davis, Eddie Dunn, William Fawcett, Bernard Gorcey, Lisa Golm, John Hamilton, Al Hill, Selmer Jackson, Milton Kibbee, Dorothy Neumann, Skeets Notes, Lee Phelps, Ray Teal, Dorothy Vaughan, Dick Wessel, Hank Worden, Jack Worth, Harry Wilson, Matt Wills, Tony Quinn and Robert Emmett O’Connor.

Robert Taylor’s ultra-conservative political beliefs led him to be a ‘friendly witness’ for the HUAC in 1947.

Taylor’s ultra-conservative political beliefs led him to become involved in 1947 as a ‘friendly witness’ for the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating ‘Communist subversion’ in the film industry. Taylor named actor Howard Da Silva as a disruptive force in the Screen Actors Guild, leading him to be blacklisted for many years. Taylor’s real name was Spangler Arlington Brugh.

Audrey Totter: ‘The bad girls were so much fun to play.’

Audrey Totter (1917–2013).

Audrey Totter signed a seven-year film contract with MGM in 1945 and made her film debut in Main Street After Dark (1945) and established herself as a popular female lead in the 1940s, especially in film noir. Totter recalled: ‘The bad girls were so much fun to play.’ Her contract with MGM ended after The Sellout (1952) and her film career went into decline, though she worked steadily on TV.

Audrey Totter died of a stroke in 2013, eight days before her 96th birthday.

High Wall is directed by Curtis Bernhardt, run 100 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Sydney Boehm and Lester Cole, from a story by Alan R Clark and Bradbury Foote, based on the 1936 novel High Wall by Alan R Clark and the play Bradbury Foote, is produced by Robert Lord, is shot in black and white by Paul Vogel, and is scored by Bronislau Kaper.

Release date: December 17, 1947 (United States).

Alas film noir crime thrillers were really not MGM’s speciality. The budget was $1,844,000 and the global box office was $2,618,000 ($1,553,000 in the US and Canada and $1,065,000 elsewhere), resulting in a loss for MGM of $101,000.

The cast are Robert Taylor as Steven Kenet, Audrey Totter as Dr Ann Lorrison, Herbert Marshall as Willard I Whitcombe, Dorothy Patrick as Helen Kenet, H B Warner as Mr Slocum, Warner Anderson as Dr George Poward, Moroni Olsen as Dr Philip Dunlap, John Ridgely as Assistant District Attorney David Wallace, Morris Ankrum as Dr Stanley Griffin, Elisabeth Risdon as Steven’s mother Mrs Kenet,  Vince Barnett as Henry Cronner, Jonathan Hale as Emory Garrison, Charles Arnt as Steven’s lawyer Sidney X Hackle, Lisa Golm as Dr Golm, Ray Mayer, Bobby Hyatt, Irving Bacon, Frank Darien, Jack Davis, Eddie Dunn, William Fawcett, Bernard Gorcey, John Hamilton, Al Hill, Selmer Jackson, Milton Kibbee, Dorothy Neumann, Skeets Notes, Lee Phelps, Ray Teal, Dorothy Vaughan, Dick Wessel, Hank Worden, Jack Worth, Harry Wilson, Matt Wills, Tony Quinn, and Robert Emmett O’Connor.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,698

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