Warren Quimby manages a drugstore while trying to keep his volatile wife, Claire, happy. However, when Claire leaves him for a liquor store salesman, Warren can no longer bear it. He decides to assume a new identity in order to murder his wife's lover without leaving a trace. Along the way, his plans are complicated by an attractive neighbor, as well as a shocking discovery that opens up a new world of doubts and accusations.
Acting
Richard Basehart's trembling repression vs. Audrey Totter's spectacular cruelty.
Cinematography
Contacts as identity weapon—optical obsession shot like fetish.
Direction
Berry stages domestic hell as claustrophobic trap.
Director
John Berry
Richard Basehart
Warren Quimby
Audrey Totter
Claire Quimby
Cyd Charisse
Mary Chanler
Barry Sullivan
Lt. Collier Bonnabel
Lloyd Gough
Barney Deager
Tom D'Andrea
Freddie
William Conrad
Lt. Edgar Gonsales
Ray Bennett
Theatre Manager (uncredited)
Virginia Brissac
Mrs. Andrews (uncredited)
Peter Brocco
Balew (uncredited)
Steve Carruthers
Reporter (uncredited)
John Gallaudet
Artie (uncredited)
Theresa Harris
Woman in Drugstore (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Cyd Charisse's casting was pure MGM loan-out magic; she was primarily a dancer, making her dramatic restraint here genuinely surprising.
The contact lens gimmick wasn't just visual flair—1949 marked the first mass-marketed lenses, making Warren's transformation weirdly prescient consumer horror.
US
