The wife of a psychoanalyst falls prey to a devious quack hypnotist when he discovers she is an habitual shoplifter. Then one of his previous patients now being treated by the real doctor is found murdered, with her still at the scene, and suspicion points only one way.
Acting
Ferrer's velvet villainy makes your skin crawl
Direction
Preminger's camera circles victims like a hypnotist's watch
Costume
Tierney's gowns cost more than her character's freedom
Director
Otto Preminger
Gene Tierney
Ann Sutton
José Ferrer
David Korvo
Richard Conte
Dr. William 'Bill' Sutton
Charles Bickford
Lt. James Colton
Eduard Franz
Martin Avery
Barbara O'Neil
Theresa "Terry" Randolph
Constance Collier
Tina Cosgrove
Fortunio Bonanova
Feruccio di Ravallo
Lawrence Dobkin
Dr. Wayne
Robert Foulk
Policeman Andy (uncredited)
Larry Keating
Mr. Simms (uncredited)
Gail Bonney
Minor Role (uncredited)
Margaret Brayton
Policewoman (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Preminger fought the Hayes Code to keep kleptomania as sexual sublimation, not mere 'nervous illness.'
This was Fox's answer to Spellbound—Freud for housewives, with Tierney's ice-queen glamour making mental illness dangerously chic.
US
