THE WHOLE TRUTH is a solid Hollywood thriller in the Hitchcockian mould; namely it's a "wronged man" story with Stewart Granger at his charismatic/stressed out best as a womaniser whose latest conquest leads to disaster. This UK/USA co-production takes an awful long time to get going, trading on the charms of Italian starlet Gianna Maria Canale for a long while until the real plot kicks in. At that point we get a George Sanders at his most sinister, a great chase sequence, and the right level of suspense as Granger tries to extricate himself from an increasingly desperate situation.

A film producer accused of murdering the leading lady of his latest project must acquit himself and save his marriage. Stewart Granger was more than apt at the part of the producer and his relationship with Donna Reed (who plays the part of his wife) is full of fairly intelligent dialogue. George Sanders' character as the actual killer of the leading lady, who had totally humiliated him with her numerous affairs, makes convincing sense as the plot unfolds of an older man confronted with a marriage that's only evidence of matrimony was the worthless piece of paper the marriage certificate was written on. The ending is a bit of a stretch, but there are a lot of nice interior shots of the jet set enjoying a swanky party on the French Riviera where the story takes place.

I rated this film 5/10 as it was no more than par for the course.The minute George Sanders appeared, I knew he was going to play another suave sophisticated villain as he has played in so many other films.Donna Reed must have been disappointed with her rather anodyne part and Stewart Granger does his best with the dialogue in the mediocre screenplay.As far as I was concerned, the star of the film was the 1958 white Jaguar XK3 sports car.A few location shots around the south of France were seen but the rest was obviously shot in a film studio.The most farcical shot was a so called "car chase" that seemed to be wholly and claustrophobically shot on the film set where the cars seemed to be going round in circles around the artificial buildings!

This film is quite similar to the George Sanders flick of 1954, "Witness to Murder." Again, Sanders is a murderer who is trying to drive everyone batty. This time, his victim is Stewart Granger, who he nicely frames for the killing of his Italian actress wife. The beginning scenes show this wife as a screaming, hot tempered woman in the same vain as the late Anna Magnani.Donna Reed plays Granger's wife. It appears that she is willing to at first believe that Granger had committed the murder. He was romantically involved with Sanders' wife. Reed is much more subdued in this film. Was she preparing for her kindly the Donna Reed television show on television? She lacks the fire that won her the supporting Oscar as Montgomery Clift's girl friend in the magnificent "From Here to Eternity."