This moderately successful film noir was directed by Robert Stevenson, who is best known for his famous hit MARY POPPINS (1964). He also directed DISHONORED LADY (1947, see my review) and THE WOMAN ON PIER 13 ((1949, see my review), not to mention 59 other films. The film was billed as a kind of successor to THE THIRD MAN (1949, see my review) of the same year, simply because the same two leads were cast together, namely the alluring and fascinating Alida Valli and Joseph Cotten. But the magic is not there. Valli does her best, but Joseph Cotten seems tired, detached, and there is no chemistry between them this time. (Maybe they had ceased to get along?) So the producers were trying to build on the previous success of these two people, and with such clearly exploitative motives, such projects generally fail. When I was 16 years old, I knew Manny Seff, joint author of the story upon which the film was based. It was his last film. He was such an amusing, whimsical man who liked to make jokes. He was very good company, though rather quiet and unassertive in his manner. The film concerns a beautiful young woman, played by Valli, who has been paralysed because of a skiing accident and is confined to a wheelchair. She is naturally deeply depressed, and all the men who had been chasing her have lost their interest in her. Three years earlier, the film BEWARE OF PITY (1946), based on the famous novel by Stefan Zweig, had proved that a film about a beautiful young woman in a wheelchair (Lily Palmer in that instance) could be a commercial success. So the producers must have felt it was OK to put Valli in one, as all would be well. As far as Valli's part of the story went, all was well. She was wholly convincing and elicits our sympathy without demanding pity. But the rest of the film which swirls around her does not really work. Joseph Cotten is a very unsuitable candidate for playing a compulsive gambler and card shark, turned thief, who is on the run. That is just not 'him'. From the very beginning of the film, as we watch the calculating Cotten assume a false identity in Valli's home town, we just do not believe the film at all. His attempts to appear cold and calculating merely make him seem wrong for the part, which he was. Any man spending all that time with the beautiful Valli simply could not behave with such indifference to her obvious charms, especially when she keeps looking at him like that and tells him that she loves him. The film is ruined by being hopelessly unconvincing. Good try, shame about that.

Walk Softly, Stranger is directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Frank Fenton. It stars Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli, Spring Byington, Paul Stewart and Jack Paar. Music is by Frederick Hollander and cinematography by Harry J. Wild.Chris Hale (Cotton) arrives in Ashton, Ohio, with manipulation and a robbery on his mind. But when he meets wheelchair bound Elaine Corelli (Valli), it alters the course of his future plans…It's the other Cotton and Valli movie, the one that isn't The Third Man. It's also the movie hat marked the wind of change at RKO as Howard Hughes breezed into the studio and promptly set about putting his own stamp on things, badly as it happens. Walk Softly, Stranger on the shelf for two years and subsequently got released in 1950, no doubt due in part to the success of The Third Man the year previously.It's a strange blend of romantic melodrama – cum thriller – with some film noir edginess, something which doesn't all together work. It's very slowly paced and settles into a mood approaching disquiet, a femme fatale of sorts is nicely set up, and the whole "just one last job" vibe keeps interest in the story high. Acting from Cotton and Valli is strong, Paul Stewart is as usual good value when playing a twitchy loser bad guy type, and Byington almost steals the film from the leads with an ebullient show as the widow Brentman.Unfortunately, come the final third the picture fails to deliver on its moody promise, choosing instead to rely on one action set-piece and a waft of optimism for pic's closure. It's not the pay off required or hoped for, a shame because as a production in general it's of good quality. 6/10

Joseph Cotten stars in "Walk Softly, Stranger," a 1950 film also starring Valli, Paul Stewart and Spring Byington. Cotten plays Chris Hale, a con man who takes up residence in a small town under his new name. He has a sweet landlady (Byington) who loves him, a decent job and is enjoying a flirtation with the boss' wheelchair-bound daughter (Valli). However, he just can't resist one more opportunity to make a huge haul by stealing a gambler's money with a partner (Stewart). After they split the money, the two go their separate ways, but Stewart panics and tracks down Chris. Chris is afraid he's led the gambler's men right to his door.This is a small, engrossing film with an excellent performance from Cotten. Someone on the board compared him here to Uncle Charle in "Shadow of a Doubt," but Charlie was a murderer, which Chris is not, and also a psychotic, again, which Chris is not. Cotten is extremely likable as Chris, a basically good man who has a fatal flaw of liking fast, easy money. Valli is okay as the boss' daughter - she's not quite as beautiful as she was in "The Paradine Case," but she's still soulful with that aura of misery. That quality made many think she could be a new Garbo. Despite doing some good, high profile films, she returned to Italy shortly after this film and worked steadily until a few years before her death. To say she seems out of place in this small town is an understatement.You really pull for Chris all the way through the film. Maybe the ending was a bit of a stretch, but I was satisfied with it. Is it a noir or a romance? This movie really doesn't know, but it's a good watch.

I watched this shortly after seeing a print of The Blue Angel. It was hard to imagine how the same man who wrote "Falling in Love Again" managed to write the neo-pretentious, pseudo-classical background music for this movie later that same lifetime. But then, Alida Valli's beauty would make anyone wax rhapsodic.