The Amazing Mr X [The Spiritualist] *** (1948, Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari, Cathy O’Donnell, Richard Carlson) – Classic Movie Review 3316

Director Bernard Vorhaus’s intriguing and effectively handled 1948 B-movie film noir mystery thriller stars Lynn Bari as a widow called Christine Faber, who is trying to put her life back together two years after the accidental death of her husband.

But odd occurrences make Christine believe her late husband is trying to communicate with her, and one night on the beach she thinks she hears her late husband Paul calling out of the surf. Then she meets and consults a tall dark stranger, a possibly dodgy psychic named Alexis (played by Turhan Bey), who comes up with eerie, ghostly stuff. However, her sister and fiancé suspect Alexis is a crook out to trick Christine and set out to try to prove it.

[Spoiler alert] It turns out that the psychic is in league with the widow’s only apparently recently deceased spouse (played by Donald Curtis) in screen-writers Muriel Roy Bolton and Ian McLellan Hunter’s entertaining yarn, based on a story by Crane Wilbur that is likely to raise the spirits.

In the useful cast, both Bari and Bey are both outstanding, while Richard Carlson plays Bari’s fiancé and Cathy O’Donnell her sister, both also effective. All four give involving performances.

John Alton’s striking noir-style black and white cinematography and Alexander Laszlo’s attractive score (particularly over the opening credit sequence) are big assets to this sleekly crafted, neat little movie.

Also in the cast are Virginia Gregg, Harry B Mendoza and Norma Varden.

John Alton also memorably shot T-Men (1947), He Walked by Night (1948), Hollow Triumph (aka The Scar) (1948), The Crooked Way (1949), Reign of Terror (1949) and The Big Combo (1955).

Watch free: https://archive.org/details/TheAmazingMr.X1948Avi

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3316

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/