Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageObsession (1949)
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Certainly Dmytryk's best British film, made after his blacklist exile and before freedom from the Hollywood system led him into the pretensions of Give Us This Day. Adapted by Alec Coppel from his own novel, it's an intriguing 'perfect murder' thriller in which an obsessively jealous husband lures his rival to a cellar on a bomb site, keeping him chained there until the coast is clear and his own grimly meticulous preparations for disposing of the body in an acid bath are complete. Perhaps only Buñuel could have done justice to the flavour as the avenger sadistically torments his victim during the wait, and an odd intimacy starts to spring up between them. Here both dialogue and performances (with Newton doing much less eye-rolling than usual) stay a little too close to the surface, but it has much the same narrative grip as Dmytryk's earlier Hollywood movies like Murder My Sweet, Cornered and Crossfire.Author: TM
Cast & crew
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Producer: NA Bronsten
Cast: Robert Newton, Phil Brown, Sally Gray, Naunton Wayne, Michael Balfour, Olga Lindo, Ronald Adam full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 98 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Ang Lee talks 'Taking Woodstock'
Ang Lee talks to Tom Huddleston about his tale of the men behind history’s greatest music festival
Sheffield Doc/Fest round-up
Sheffield’s annual Doc/Fest is Britain’s largest documentary festival. Edward Lawrenson learnt a few new things by taking the train north.
Hippies who work for The Man
To celebrate George Clooney comedy 'The Men who Stare at Goats', we look back at six memorable onscreen hippies who fought the system from within
Roland Emmerich's guide to disaster movies
Ahead of the release of '2012', Roland Emmerich offers his ten tips on creating the perfect global catastrophe
Grant Heslov: interview
Grant Heslov, director of 'The Men who Stare at Goats' talks about his old pal George Clooney, his interest in the paranormal, and his fond memories of working on 'Happy Days'
The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'
Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’
Ten inspirations behind 'Avatar'?
Time Out ponders the influences behind James Cameron's anticipated space-opera on the basis of the trailer
Michael Haneke: The man behind the menace
From Cannes to Munich to London, Dave Calhoun tours Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner, 'The White Ribbon'
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now