Tension

DVD review from The Movie Snob

Tension (B). This completes my viewing of my collection of film noir classics, and it ends on a high note. Our protagonist is Warren Quimby, a mild-mannered pharmicist who is in love with wholesome girl-next-door Mary Chandler (played by the lovely Cyd Charisse, Singin’ in the Rain). Matters are complicated by the fact that he is married to a two-timing blond vixen named Claire, and that when he meets Mary he is already up to his eyeballs in a completed scheme to murder Claire’s lover and get away with it. Naturally, things don’t go entirely as planned. Our square-jawed, plain-spoken homicide detective engages in some very unorthodox tactics to get to the bottom of the case. Surely even in 1949 it wasn’t common for gumshoes to ferret out clues by dating one of the prime suspects in a murder case….