Beware, My Lovely (1952)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Helen Gordon (Ida Lupino) hires Howard Wilton (Robert Ryan) as a handyman to do chores around her house. She doesn't know what she's let herself in for. Insecure and paranoid, Wilton thinks everyone, including Helen, is against him. He suffers from memory lapses and extreme mood swings. She's soon a prisoner in her own house after Wilton locks the doors and tears out the telephone. His mood swings from violence to complacency but after Helen gets a message to the police via a telephone repairman, she finds he is still in the house.
- Actors:
- Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Taylor Holmes, Barbara Whiting, James Willmas, O.Z. Whitehead, Dee Pollock, Shelly Lynn Anderson, Corky, Jeanne Eggenweiler, Jimmy Mobley, Brad Morrow, Ronnie Patterson, William Talman
- Directors:
- Harry Horner
- Producers:
- Collier Young
- Writers:
- Mel Dinelli
- Aka:
- Day Without End
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Thrillers
More like Beware, My Lovely
Reviews (1) of Beware, My Lovely
Fifties Noir - Beware, My Lovely review by Steve
This hostage thriller now gets called film noir, but feels more like gothic melodrama with its woman in peril, deranged male oppressor, old dark house and period setting. It's 1918 and Ida Lupino is a war widow who finds casual work for an itinerant handyman (Robert Ryan) who turns out to be a psychopathic serial killer...
Director Harry Horner was usually a production designer, which is apparent in the increasingly menacing guest house that entraps the vulnerable woman. There's also a touch of expressionism to enhance the atmosphere of threat. And though it starts slowly, the encounter builds to a nerve shredding climax.
Ida Lupino's production company usually focused on thrillers with controversial social themes. Maybe this treats mental illness with more sensitivity than most gaslight melodramas, but its purpose is to create the most intimidating antagonist possible. It's not a case study, but Ryan does build a powerful sense of jeopardy.
The origin as a stage play is evident (also a short story and radio drama- with Frank Sinatra!) but this intensifies the mood of claustrophobic confinement. It's the sort of scenario which became a mainstay of television, but there is a superior imaginative quality here, despite the small budget. And there are better stars.