Rent Whirlpool (1959)

3.1 of 5 from 51 ratings
1h 31min
Rent Whirlpool Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
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Synopsis:
Tense 1950's thriller set against the stunning scenery of the Rheinland. Lora (Juliette Greco) a beautiful barmaid, is tracked down by her wartime boyfriend Herman (William Sylvester), a shadowy figure involved in illegal currency dealing. In Lora's bar, Herman murders another criminal and escapes, taking the innocent Lora with him. Against her better judgement, Lora agrees to meet in Amsterdam, and to evade the authorities, they agree to travel separately. On her journey Lora meets Rolph (O.W. Fischer) who is captaining a cargo boat down the River Rhein.
Lora begins to fall for Rolph but with both the Police and Herman closing in will she finally find happiness and free herself from her abusive relationship with Herman!!
Actors:
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Directors:
Producers:
George Pitcher, Sam Lomberg
Writers:
Lawrence P. Bachmann, Marcel Stellman
Studio:
Strawberry Media
Genres:
Classics, Drama, Romance, Thrillers
Collections:
A Brief History of Cinema Afloat: Part 3, Cinema Paradiso's 2022 Centenary Club, A Brief History of Film...
BBFC:
Release Date:
23/03/2020
Run Time:
91 minutes
Languages:
English LPCM Mono
Subtitles:
None
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
Colour:
Colour

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Reviews (1) of Whirlpool

The White Shoes - Whirlpool review by CH

Spoiler Alert
01/10/2020

“Yes, they are men - and you're not the only woman!”

Juliette Gréco has reason on her side. Aboard a large freight barge - the Clementine - upon the Rhine, she upbraids the Captain's needlessly jealous wife (Muriel Pavlow).

That said, the Captain's wife, did she but know it, has equal reason to be suspicious, for Juliette Gréco is on the run from a criminal, money-laundering lover (William Silvester) who, in the meanwhile, has shot dead another man while trying to find her. A sign of his callous nature is when, along the way, a waitress, says to him, eyelids fluttering, “I am going off at eleven” and he replies, “you've been going off since you were eleven.”

Adept as all the cast might be (including the Captain, Marius Goring whose wild hair has something of the Gene Wilder about it), it is Juliette Gréco who tops the bill (and sings, in English, over the opening credits). One might more readily picture her holding a microphone in a boite than a ship's wheel at the blaze of noon; moreover, her only black clothes are a briefly-glimpsed nightdress; for the rest of the time - though she does hangs a black bra on a washing line, which must have set many a 1959 heart aflutter - her long legs are encased by blue jeans in a film whose shifting river background is filmed in Eastmancolor. And yet it works, she carries a film whose ninety minutes are rarely without her on screen.

The opening moments are the classic stuff of fast-paced shoot-out but, upon the water, the pace slows without one's interest ebbing, and, indeed, gasping at the very end - even after the river has turned briefly red. As for the shoes which herald this review, they are in fact clogs, which are quite possibly the last garment on earth in which one would have imagined Juliette Gréco. How that comes to be – well, see for yourself. And if its director Lewis Allen is not a name on many lips (he worked mostly in television), never forget that he had made one of the paciest thrillers, Suddenly (1954) in which another singer, Frank Sinatra delivered another surprising on-screen appearance.

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