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| See the entry for this movie at the IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036775/ |
The dialogue was snappy, if dated in places, but then when you have Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler co-writing the script, it's hard to go wrong.
The one really peculiar, almost Lovecraftian aspect to this movie that really stood out, but didn't ruin it by any means, was the main character's use of a dictaphone to record his confession...it was just like one of those terrible instances in HPL's fiction where the intrepid investigator into the unknown pauses to fill out his journal, complete with the Monty Python-esque 'Aaarrgghh!' at the end.
But this wasn't a hard-boiled re-telling ofThe Diary of Alonzo Typer, by any means.
Thankfully.
Of course, if the femme fatale character that Barbara Stanwyck played had been swapped-out with Lavinia Whateley, well, that would have taken things in an entirely different direction...one that would be a great deal of fun to see explored.
Film Noir and Lovecraft go together really, really well. The Trail of Cthulhu rpg seems to lend itself to exactly this sort of mash-up. We're seriously considering picking it up and running a game or two of crack-pot film noir inspired eldritch madness...