Tense to tear

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Movie
German title Tense to tear
Original title Tension
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1949
length 95 minutes
Rod
Director John Berry
script Allen Rivkin
production Robert Sisk
music André Previn
camera Harry Stradling Sr.
cut Albert Akst
occupation

For breaking point (original title: Tension ) is in black and white twisted American film noir from the year 1949 .

action

Lieutenant Collier Bonnabel homicide explained at the beginning of the film as it sets the suspects as long under pressure until these (under the tension English "tension") yield and betrayed. In a flashback , he describes the case of Warren Quimby:

Claire Quimby, the unfaithful wife of the pharmacist Warren Quimby, who dreams of a prosperous life, leaves him for the successful bon vivant Barney Deager. She moves into Deager's beach house in Malibu , where Warren puts them both. A brawl breaks out between the men in which Warren is defeated and humiliated. Warren seeks revenge and plans Deager's assassination. He takes on the identity of the traveling salesman Paul Sothern, moves into an apartment under a false name and changes his appearance by wearing contact lenses instead of his glasses. He goes out with his neighbor Mary, but rejects her declaration of love by stating that he is not the right person for her. Eventually, Warren breaks into Deager's house but fails to carry out his plan to kill his competitor. Shortly after, Deager is actually murdered, and Warren is forced to give up his identity as Paul Sothern. A missing person report from Mary, who is looking for Paul, who has suddenly disappeared, puts the police on Warren's lead. Bonnabel confronts Mary and Warren in his pharmacy; although she does not want to reveal him, Warren's second identity is revealed. Warren is being interrogated by Bonnabel as the main suspect, while Claire is involved in an affair with the police lieutenant who is openly courting her. When Claire learns of Warren's relationship with Mary, she takes revenge by portraying Warren as the alleged perpetrator. When she tries to place the gun with which she shot Deager in Paul / Warren's apartment, she is caught. Bonnabel arrests Claire, who hoped in vain that he would spare her. The way is clear for Warren and Mary.

background

Tensioned to the Breaking premiered in November 1949. In the FRG the film was shown as a television premiere on December 22, 1991.

Director John Berry made only one more film in the US before he, denounced as a communist before the Committee on Un-American Activities , found no work in Hollywood and was forced to take directorships in Europe .

Reviews

"[The film] wanders from one point to the next without tension and ends with a stunning resolution that you can see coming half an hour in advance."

"Even today, some of the lesser-known films of their kind - Roy William Neill's Forgotten Hour and John Berry 's Torn To Tear , to name but two - are all-round satisfying lessons in style and storytelling. These films are the most authentic noirs. "

- James Naremore

"Sluggish variation of the classic film noir" theme of the weak man and the 'femme fatale', which only has some density at the beginning. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ On November 23, 1949, according to the Internet Movie Database and Turner Classic Movies , on November 25, according to the American Film Institute . Alain Silver and Elisabeth Ward give January 11, 1950 as the start of the film, cf. Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward (Eds.): Film Noir. An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition. Overlook / Duckworth, New York / Woodstock / London 1992, ISBN 0-87951-479-5 , p. 284.
  2. a b Tense to tear in the lexicon of international filmTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used .
  3. Myrna Oliver: John Berry; Blacklisted Film Director Relocated Overseas. Article in the Los Angeles Times on December 1, 1999, accessed February 22, 2013.
  4. "[...] rambles from one thing to another in a most unsuspenseful way and ends with a shattering revelation which you can see coming a half-hour in advance." - Review in the New York Times of January 12, 1950, accessed on February 22, 2013.
  5. ^ "Even today, some of the lesser known films of the type – to mention only two, Roy William Neill's Black Angel (1946) and John Berry's Tension (1949) –remain deeply satisfying exercises in style and storytelling. Such films are the true kind of noir […] ”- James Naremore: More than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts. Updated and Expanded. University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles / London 2008 (WA), ISBN 978-0-520-25402-2 , p. Xv.