The Guilty (1947)

Pretty Good

Fresh and Exciting

Best movie ever!

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Another good film about twins from 1947 – the other being "Dual Alibi" starring Herbert Lom. In this offering, Bonita Granville plays both the good and the bad sister. One of them is murdered and it's up to Inspector Regis Toomey to get to the truth. Ex-soldier Don Castle (Mike) also does some investigating of his own.There is a small cast in this offering and so you may suspect the guilty party at some point. However, this story is clever and does provide you with extra twists and turns at the end. The film is short and basically, it fooled me.Twins always seem to be trouble whenever they pop up in films!

Wow, Nancy Drew all grown-up! And in a dual role to boot! Bonita Granville may be slightly miscast as a film-noir-type femme fatale (the role of the kinder, sweeter sister seems to suit her better), but she gives an honest, heartfelt performance anyway. The rest of the cast is fine. The film is a little slow-moving (it feels longer than its <70 minutes of running time), but fans of twisty-turny whodunits will find a lot to like here; Cornell Woolrich's story uses a daring storytelling device that was also employed by Agatha Christie in one of her most famous books; of course I won't spoil it for you by mentioning which one! **1/2 out of 4.

Bonita Granville was a child star who made an indelible impression as the demonic Mary Tilford in "These Three" (1936), she played another memorable meanie in "Maid of Salem" (1937) and then it was back to more conventional roles such as Nancy Drew. During the 40s she strove to find more adult roles and she made some interesting movies - "Youth Runs wild","Hitler's Children", "Suspense". "The Guilty" was one of those films. It was a gritty, tough film noir and being taken from a Cornell Woolrich story had more twists and turns than a mountain road. Olivia De Havilland had played "good twin/bad twin" roles in "The Dark Mirror" a glossy production with Lew Ayres as the baffled doctor, a year or so before."The Guilty" was able to use a similar story but take it in different directions - apart from the mother, everyone else seemed edgy and guilty!!! The plot is a lot tighter and more complicated, it is just an excellent little noir.Mike (Don Castle) shares his flat with an old army buddy, Dixon (Wally Cassell) who because of a head injury sustained during the war, is jumpy, jittery and relies too much on drink and drugs. Both of them are involved with Linda and Estelle, (both played by Bonita Granville) a classic good twin, bad twin mix and when Dixon realises that it is sweet Linda who he loves, Mike takes up with Estelle, a boy crazy party girl.One night Linda disappears and later turns up murdered - enter Police Inspector Heller (Regis Toomey) a very cool, calm and collected type who is like a dog with a bone. He encounters a baffling maze of false clues and Mike also starts his own investigation because he feels Dixon is being judged without defense. Not only has Estelle become Linda's protector (before her death they had hated each other - now she is determined to find the killer) but fatherly lodger (John Litel, who played Nancy Drew's father) seems to be a bit too fond of the twins. There is a scene at the start where he eagerly looks forward to going to the movies with Linda, only to be let down.The film is set mostly in the men's apartment (it is based on a Woolrich short story "Two Fellows in a Furnished Room") and a cheap bar, obviously Monogram had a tight budget but it just heightened the claustrophobic and seedy atmosphere that gripped you till the end. Something of interest - it was the first picture produced by John Devereaux Wrather Jnr., a Dallas oil millionaire and before the movie's premiere he and Bonita were wed.Highly, Highly Recommended.

Bonita Granville was an extremely talented younger actress, as was clear from 'The Beloved Brat' (1938) and the four Nancy Drew films she made, for instance. She had a special charm and directness which was most refreshing. Here she is, somewhat older, playing identical twins in an extremely low-budget noir thriller produced by her husband Jack Wrather. The sets are so cheap, it seems as if a puff of wind would blow them down, and they are bleak as well, perhaps on purpose to make the atmosphere one of desolation. She is certainly cast against type, since the main twin whom she plays is a bad girl, and Bonita was famous for being a sweetie pie. However, it works, and she proves she can be as sultry and venomous as any gal if she wants to, and she does want to. The two guys are Don Castle and Wally Cassell, which reminds me that Louis Ferdinand-Celine wrote a novel the English title of which is 'Castle to Castle', not bad for this situation, if we change it to 'Cassell to Castle', as one twin passes between the two guys. This is a very powerful and effective noir story with its twists and grisly side. As it is 1947, there is a guy suffering from serious shell-shock, holding his face in his hands and saying: 'I'm going to crack up completely again, like I did the first time'. There are desperate undercurrents of insane jealousy and passion, a disappearance and murder, seething resentments and kisses that are more like football touchdowns, they are so rough. For something made for ten dollars, this is a really good thriller. The voice-over narrative works extremely well, and the whole thing is a knockout if you can forgive the fact that somebody along the way forgot about the need for production values. Anyway, there's Bonita, and you even get two for the price of one.