A doctor has suspicions about a curious married couple in the early 20th century. There's more than a passing similarity to GASLIGHT here, which may be mere coincidence, although it did come after the 1940 version and several months after the remake. Whereas Cukor focuses on the wife, however, Tourneur sticks with the outsider character, revealing information through investigation and flashback. As a result, this tale feels far less immediate and tense and takes on more of an air of mystery. But the film is crippled by dull characterizations. George Brent is absolute zero and Paul Lukas is only slightly more interesting. Hedy Lamarr is lovely (as we're told MANY times before she appears... few entrances have such a buildup) but quite wooden. I've only seen her in a couple of other movies, but beyond her looks she hasn't impressed me at all. There's also a rather overbearing score, although it is nice at times. I dunno, I feel like I should have liked this movie more. It does have that kind of dreamlike Tourneur vibe to it, I just couldn't engage with the characters and the plot doesn't have a very satisfying payoff.

A chance encounter on a train between Dr Bailey (George Brent) and Cissie (Olive Blakeney) brings the doctor into the world of Nick (Paul Lukas) and Allida (Hedy Lamarr). When Cissie dies, Dr Bailey is suspicious and he he starts to look through Cissie's travel case which has been sent on to him by mistake from their train journey together.The story keeps you watching and the cast are good, although Hedy Lamarr comes across as slightly too feeble on occasion. There is no complicated plot twist and it is pretty obvious who the evil one is. The psychological torture that is portrayed is extremely lame ("Gaslight" is far better at achieving the required effect) and may have you wondering what the point of the film is. There seems to be nothing suspicious to be investigating. It's an OK story about love that doesn't work out and the moral is don't marry someone who is way older than you......unless you like daisies....

I had only a vague notion of the plot before watching this, knowing only that the central character was a psychiatrist played by George Brent. But despite rather odd characters being wheeled on and off, despite portentous things (The opening sequence of the train besieged by lightning, storm and floods and Hedy Lammar's so-called "special look" in the portrait which itself appeared to be merely an enlarged and retouched photo yet supposedly hung in a museum as work of art) and dialogue; the production, script and cast battled as one so successfully to subdue and ultimately suppress conviction and interest that we parted company after around 20 minutes of viewing.Having watched both versions of "Gaslight" (with which reviewers have compared this offering) I would say both are incomparably superior to it. The earlier British version (fortunately saved from deliberate destruction) offered in the form of Anton Walbrook the most odious villain accompanied by a perhaps a more realistically vulnerable and less beautiful wife than Ingrid Bergman. Both films were intriguing from the outset. I guess that from the start I had misgivings about the casting of George Brent - an bulky actor of limited powers of expression and interpretation who was inexplicably regularly cast opposite Hollywood's very finest (eg Bette Davis). Brent is amiable and at times rather concerned but neither involving nor intriguing. Joseph Cotton for example would have suggested depths which Brent never could.I did not find the sets convincing - like the portrait itself they indicated a deficit of artistry and style however the opening section with its (model?) train besieged by storm and floods was well done. Interesting to note that it received no awards and that its single Oscar nomination was for art direction.

Beautifully mounted recreation of 19th century New York, which is not surprising since this was RKO's golden age of set design and art direction. Those wall encased aquariums that line the main hall are shrewdly suggestive that anything might happen in such an exotic old mansion. Note too, the constant presence of snow on the sidewalks, a realistic and atmospheric touch unusual because of the expense.The opening scenes foreshadow dangers to come-- the locomotive plowing through flooded tracks, the odd "birdlike" passenger who intrudes with her strange story. All of this had me thinking the movie would be special. Indeed, the first half is intriguing as the doctor (Brent) delves further into the mysterious death of the birdlike woman. However, the second half flattens out into a rather static drawingroom drama that fails to generate the kind of edge-of-the-seat climax that's needed.George Brent was never a charismatic leading man, bland at best. Here, however, he blends right in as the stolidly responsible doctor who can be believed. The trouble is that the script follows him around for almost the entire time, and since he's seldom privy to events with the boy, we don't get much sense of the menace surrounding the boy that should drive the suspense, but doesn't. La Marr, of course, looks exquisite as the script requires; nonetheless, her skills as a besieged wife are considerably less than those of Ingrid Bergmann in the remarkably similar Gaslight (1944). Then too, Paul Lukas lacks the kind of conniving charm that the part calls for, making the showdown less a revelation of his true character, than a simple extension.On the other hand, the movie has the great Albert Decker as a maverick sculptor who breathes real life into the proceedings, along with a terrific explosion and fire that's a real grabber. However, I'm still puzzling over that awkward epilogue involving the cop at movie's end. Was that to satisfy Code requirements that nothing gets past the police since there is an element of deception that would otherwise be left hanging. Anyway, whatever the movie's shortcomings, it remains unerringly pictorial throughout, a tribute to the artistic eye of director Jacques Tourneur and the RKO art department.