Rent Obsession (1949)

Murder as Therapy, Suspense as Comedy - Obsession review by griggs

A war-scarred London, still pocked with bomb sites, is the backdrop for Obsession. Out of that rubble, Edward Dmytryk spins a story that begins like a straight thriller but soon veers into something darker and slyer. What unfolds is a balancing act — half-black comedy, half-slow-burn tension — as a wealthy psychiatrist calmly plots the “perfect crime.”

The film toys with the mechanics of murder, but it’s never just about body disposal. Beneath the surface sits a Cold War allegory: civility masking power, brinkmanship played out in private, the dread of waiting for someone else to make the first move. Robert Newton gives menace with a raised eyebrow, while Naunton Wayne provides a detective so understated you half-wonder if he’s in on the joke.

Stylish, dry, and just twisted enough, Obsession proves a thriller doesn’t need volume to unsettle. Sometimes menace works best when it offers you a drink and locks the door behind you.

London Noir. - Obsession review by Steve

Edward Dmytryk was a pioneer of American film noir, and after becoming one of the first casualties of McCarthyism, he moved to England and directed Obsession, among the most authentic looking British noirs. And it's a terrifically suspenseful thriller.

Its preoccupation is the perfect murder. An egotistical psychiatrist (Robert Newton) is intent on killing his wife's lover (Phil Brown) and locks him in a hidden room. But the garrulous shrink plans to keep his rival chained up during the investigation into the disappearance, and murder him when the heat is off.

 Which will give the captor time to fill a bath with acid, while he toys expansively with his victim. Regrettably, Newton gives a typically bumptious and tiresome performance. Sally Gray though, is a most effective floozy; a victim of her husband's psychopathic jealousy but without being sympathetic either.  

Naunton Wayne gives the film a big lift in the second half as a proto-Colombo who turns up unexpectedly, asking awkward questions. It's such well directed and exciting thriller that it's possible to overlook Newton's histrionics. And his really strange accent. This is one of Dmytryk's best films.