The beginning of the film shows how Broadway actress Valerie Stanton (Rosalind Russell) came to accidentally kill her mentor, producer, and past lover Gordon Dunning (Leon Ames). Yes, he was threatening to tell her fiancé, architect Michael Morrell (Leo Genn) about their torrid affair - exaggerating if he had to - so he could keep her around professionally, but this is really a personal obsession in his case.However, Dunning actually is assaulting her and physically refusing to let her leave his office by grabbing her. It's not a stretch to think someone as off balance as Dunning was at that moment could have been capable of rape. So technically Valerie was within her rights to strike him as hard as she had to in order to get away. It's just unfortunate that when she strikes him with his own award statue that she kills him.If Valerie had called the police right then, chances are she would not have even been charged. But no, she simply leaves the office - it is late, long after her final performance of this particular show - and descends the theater staircase and escapes the scene undetected. The ace in the hole is that she always wears long gloves - an idea of Dunning's - so ironically Dunning has set up his killer to leave no fingerprints.To make matters even easier on Valerie, a woman who loved Dunning before Valerie came along and took him away, Claire Trevor as Marian Webster, finds the body, picks up the statuette, and cries out in horror and loss over the body of the man she has always loved but who has not loved her in a very long time. She is suspect number one, tied down in a mental hospital.Valerie can leave the scene and allow the law to make the obvious judgment that a jealous Marian killed Dunning, but she cannot leave her conscience behind.Rosalind Russell is terrific as a woman who basically emotionally unravels ... until she settles on a course of action. Sydney Greenstreet is the police detective sent out to see if this case is as open and shut as it seems. He plays the role with elegant charm, and you never know if, like Columbo, he has suspected what really happened all along. Genn plays the fiancé who turns out to be more insightful than he has been putting on, and nobody plays the mistreated woman who won't let go no matter what like Claire Trevor.The score does not reflect a noir or a crime drama, but the elegance of Broadway as it is portrayed here - the restaurants, the parties, the rehearsals, and the ornate theaters that are shrines to great architecture. I'd recommend this one.

Vintage film buffs are here offered a cast to die for from the top-billed Roz Russell through Leon Ames, Clare Trevor and Sydney Greenstreet, who turns up four and a half reels in and immediately embarks on a cat-and- mouse duel with Russell. Although there have been a sprinkling - Stage Door, Morning Glory, All About Eve - the theatre hasn't featured too often in film so The Velvet Touch fills an all-too real gap. God knows how much Sardi's shelled out for product placement but it was worth it for the theatre-buff viewers who will lap up the atmosphere. The plot fits where it touches but this time around it's a case of the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts.

When this film begins, Valerie Stanton (Rosalind Russell) is in the office of Gordon Dunning (Leon Ames). Dunning is insisting that he MUST have her or he will destroy her. Dunning is VERY intense and vaguely threatening. Stanton is obviously afraid of him and ends up accidentally killing him in self-defense. However, she does NOT tell the police but tries to see if she can get away with it. Since there is no doubt that Valerie did it, you might wonder how they fill the rest of the movie. After all, the killing happens in just the first few minutes of the film. Well, part of the film consists of Valerie having a flashback where she thinks about all the things that led up to the killing. The rest consists of the police investigation headed by the Captain (Sidney Greenstreet). However, where it all goes is not what I would have expected--and I appreciate that. In particular, since Valerie was doing the play "Hedda Gabler", I assumed the film would end the same as the play.The film has a very nice script, as it explores human nature and has plenty of twists and turns. Additionally, the acting and direction are quite intelligently done--making it a nice movie for adult tastes. Of the actors, by the way, my favorite was Greenstreet, as he plays against type and his performance is smooth and believable. Overall, a very nice film.

Sydney Greenstreet and his loud, frequent guffaw (6 years after Maltese Falcon and Casablanca) plays Captain Danbury trying to track down a murderer, with a few twists and turns. Viewers will recognize Gordon Dunning, played by Leon Ames, who often had roles of authority, -- the sheriff, the DA, the commissioner, the captain on a ship. Rosalind Russell (10 years after playing Sylvia Fowler in "The Women") plays Valerie Stanton, a stage actress ( although Agnes Moorhead would also have been PERFECT for this role). Leo Genn, Claire Trevor (Key Largo, The High & Mighty), Frank McHugh, and Walter Kingsford also play very believable characters. Note also Theresa Harris, the dresser, who was also in "The Women" with RR. Good solid story from 1948, no obvious plot-holes.