The Velvet Touch (1948)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Rosalind Russell (Valerie) plays an actress who is fed up of doing as she is told by mentor and romantic partner Leon Ames (Dunning). She wants to break free from comedic plays and tackle more serious parts. She also wants to end her romantic liaison with Ames and head off with architect Leo Genn (Morrell). She confronts Ames at the beginning of the film and a few minutes later we have a murder for detective Sydney Greenstreet (Danbury) to look into.It's a strange mix. We have a happy musical credit sequence at the beginning which leads into the dramatic confrontation and murder at the film's beginning. What's this about? Unfortunately, the acting is uninteresting with the women being fragile and therefore showing no interesting qualities. They are just resigned to their fate. Go to the bottom of the class Rosalind Russell and Claire Trevor who plays fellow actress and rival Marian. When Sydney Greenstreet appears, we get some hope in terms of storyline, and he adds comedy into the mix. He always manages to portray a sinister character. Does he know more than he lets on?The copy I watched had some pixel interference and the lip synching fell out of line so there were moments of unwanted hilarity of masterful ventriloquism. This would normally annoy the hell out of me but it actually scores the film a mark in this instance. Rosalind Russell is poor in the lead.

The beginning of the film shows how Broadway actress Valerie Stanton (Rosalind Russell) came to accidentally kill her mentor, producer, and past lover Gordon Dunning (Leon Ames). Yes, he was threatening to tell her fiancé, architect Michael Morrell (Leo Genn) about their torrid affair - exaggerating if he had to - so he could keep her around professionally, but this is really a personal obsession in his case.However, Dunning actually is assaulting her and physically refusing to let her leave his office by grabbing her. It's not a stretch to think someone as off balance as Dunning was at that moment could have been capable of rape. So technically Valerie was within her rights to strike him as hard as she had to in order to get away. It's just unfortunate that when she strikes him with his own award statue that she kills him.If Valerie had called the police right then, chances are she would not have even been charged. But no, she simply leaves the office - it is late, long after her final performance of this particular show - and descends the theater staircase and escapes the scene undetected. The ace in the hole is that she always wears long gloves - an idea of Dunning's - so ironically Dunning has set up his killer to leave no fingerprints.To make matters even easier on Valerie, a woman who loved Dunning before Valerie came along and took him away, Claire Trevor as Marian Webster, finds the body, picks up the statuette, and cries out in horror and loss over the body of the man she has always loved but who has not loved her in a very long time. She is suspect number one, tied down in a mental hospital.Valerie can leave the scene and allow the law to make the obvious judgment that a jealous Marian killed Dunning, but she cannot leave her conscience behind.Rosalind Russell is terrific as a woman who basically emotionally unravels ... until she settles on a course of action. Sydney Greenstreet is the police detective sent out to see if this case is as open and shut as it seems. He plays the role with elegant charm, and you never know if, like Columbo, he has suspected what really happened all along. Genn plays the fiancé who turns out to be more insightful than he has been putting on, and nobody plays the mistreated woman who won't let go no matter what like Claire Trevor.The score does not reflect a noir or a crime drama, but the elegance of Broadway as it is portrayed here - the restaurants, the parties, the rehearsals, and the ornate theaters that are shrines to great architecture. I'd recommend this one.

When this film begins, Valerie Stanton (Rosalind Russell) is in the office of Gordon Dunning (Leon Ames). Dunning is insisting that he MUST have her or he will destroy her. Dunning is VERY intense and vaguely threatening. Stanton is obviously afraid of him and ends up accidentally killing him in self-defense. However, she does NOT tell the police but tries to see if she can get away with it. Since there is no doubt that Valerie did it, you might wonder how they fill the rest of the movie. After all, the killing happens in just the first few minutes of the film. Well, part of the film consists of Valerie having a flashback where she thinks about all the things that led up to the killing. The rest consists of the police investigation headed by the Captain (Sidney Greenstreet). However, where it all goes is not what I would have expected--and I appreciate that. In particular, since Valerie was doing the play "Hedda Gabler", I assumed the film would end the same as the play.The film has a very nice script, as it explores human nature and has plenty of twists and turns. Additionally, the acting and direction are quite intelligently done--making it a nice movie for adult tastes. Of the actors, by the way, my favorite was Greenstreet, as he plays against type and his performance is smooth and believable. Overall, a very nice film.

Rosalind Russell signed a multi-picture deal with RKO in the hopes of getting some really serious dramatic roles and RKO obliged her with Sister Kenny and Mourning Becomes Electra. Two really good performances she got Oscar nominations for and both failed miserably at the box office. With those two failures with RKO she and husband Frederick Brisson approached RKO and offered to produce this next film, investing a little of their own money I'm sure. Brisson was a well known Broadway producer. This was the first of four films he produced for his wife. In doing The Velvet Touch Rosalind Russell took on a role I would normally have seen someone like Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck do. Still Roz does it in grand style. Russell plays an actress who is trying to break free from her personal and professional entanglements with producer Leon Ames who only sees her in lightweight material. Roz has also fallen for architect Leo Genn, but Ames won't let her go. In desperation and frustration she picks up a Tony Award facsimile and kills Ames with a blow. Suspicion falls on another actress Claire Trevor who under the weight of it commits suicide. Still police captain Sydney Greenstreet keeps on digging. Brisson assembled a fine supporting cast as you can see by just the names I've mentioned. Both Trevor and Greenstreet stand out. Claire if she had not won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress that year for Key Largo might well have been nominated for this. With a minimum of histrionics she conveys a woman hopelessly in love and always being beaten out by the more glamorous Russell. As for Greenstreet, his police captain is the same kind of forensic detective of the mind that he played in Conflict opposite Humphrey Bogart. I'm surprised no one ever thought to cast Greenstreet as Rex Stout's famous literary detective Nero Wolfe. He would have been grand in the part. Best of all according to Russell's memoirs, The Velvet Touch even made money for RKO. Everyone was happy including the audience with this one.