****SPOILERS****British film executive Reggie Wilson, Richard Basehart, is about to commit himself into the "Funny Farm" because of all these letters he's been getting postage marked New Castle from this woman Evelyn Stewart, Mary Murphy, claiming that he had a hot and heavy affair with her back in New York some five years ago. Not remembering a thing about this supposed affair Reggie feeling he's being blackmailed goes to New Castle to confront Evelyn and finally get to the bottom of all this mental anguish he's being put through. Going to New Castle with his wife-a really bad idea-Lesley,Faith Brooke, it become apparent to everyone his wife the police as well as himself that there's some truth to Evelyn's accusations about his affair with her even though Reggie can't remember a thing about it!With the head of the studio as well as his father-in-law Ben Case, not Ben Casey of the 1960's TV series,played by Roger Livesey giving Reggie a forced leave of absence he take a trip to the studio to both chill out and get his act together! It's then that everything comes together for him when he spots Evelyn showing up there for a job as if it's some kind of pay off by Case in her driving him nutty! What turns out is that Evelyn got her wires crossed in thinking that Case was behind all this manipulating poor Reggie's head! And that's when Reggie finally found who's been pulling the strings to get him kicked out of his job and end up in the loony bin!****SPOILERS**** Wild final with Reggie finding out and exposing, with a hidden microphone, the person behind his troubles with his father-in-law and boss Ben Case listening in. Evelyn soon realizing that she somehow has been set up to be the pasty in all this takes a powder only to be caught as she tries to make a quick getaway form the studio grounds. As for the person who set Reggie up he tries to gun him down only to find out that the sub-machine, which he should have known, that he tried to blast him with was only a harmless movie prop!

OK, perhaps I rated this a little too high, but anything featuring the very good Richard Basehart is fine in my book. Having seen this a while ago, I recently watched the beginning and the ending once again.The beginning draws you in to a story which, while not especially original, does provide enough mystery and twists and turns to be involving. The actors are all highly professional, and the directing is serviceable. Earlier reviews have suggested that Losey (director) had the usual axe to grind as a blacklisted Hollywood veteran. Well, perhaps, but if that was the case, he didn't succeed.Instead what we have is a psychological drama (a la film noir) in which our protagonist is assailed by an unkind fate (personified by an unexpectedly satisfying Mary Murphy). Things go badly as the film moves toward the predictable climax, when all is revealed. Here, Losey pulls out all of his particular directorial stops and gives us a good cinematic treat as Basehart tangles with the real (albeit somewhat wimpy) villain of the piece in a shadow play bravura conflict. Decent film, well worth your time. 4 out of 5.

This has to be one of the most unrealistic movies that ever came down the pike. It may have been unintentional but the irony of setting something largely in a film studio, i.e. a place where they manufacture unreality, and then portraying that studio as a neglected corner of a run-down industrial estate is priceless. Richard Basehart as head of the studio has an office about as prepossessing as that of a minor official in Eastern Europe in the late sixties and that of his father-in-law and movie mogul Roger Livesey is superior only in the sense that it boasts superior oilcloth on the floor. The story, by Howard Koch, who - unbelievably on this showing - co-scripted Casablanca, is so clearly a metaphor for the Blacklist (both Koch and director Losey, were victims and worked here under John Does) that it becomes risible which it shouldn't do because there were many innocent victims 'accused' of things they hadn't done during the HUAC years and the denouement involving Mervyn Johns is pathetic. Losey completists will want to see it but of you're not one stay home and watch Big Brother.

This is a stylish and engrossing noir. The music seems a bit dated but the use of background sound is inventive and seems to presage Godard's. Is this Joseph Losey's best? No. "Time Without Pity," a year later, is far more powerful and less predictable. Not at all predictable, actually, and this one is. The resolution is not a surprise, exactly, but it is powerfully presented and moving.Mary Murphy played a good bitch. I haven't seen her in many movies but it seems that she often was cast in this was. Losey uses the clattering of her high heels effectively. Actually, she is not a thoroughly bad character. She feels remorse.Constance Cummins is excellent as the star imported for the main character's big project. Her helping him out of his predicament is touching. And Richard Basehart: One of the best American actors, he is superb here. He did not win the conventional awards but will long be remembered, if only for his beautiful playing in "La Strada" (and for his mousy pharmacist in what I consider the perfect noir: "Tension.")