Alias Nick Beal

Ray Milland is super fun to watch in this. He's not right for every role, but here he has to be a disconcerting mix of charming and dangerous and he does it well, a little bit hammy when it needs to be, but never further than the script requires. It's a silly premise on it's face, but except for the ending the film sells it well and that makes following its twists and turns a pleasure.

Nice atmospheric noir version of Faust. Ray Milland makes a good devil.

This is the quintessence of noir, a genre where an allegorical modern take on Faust is right at home, especially with the presence of an ace trifecta of lead actors. I mean, Milland was born to play the devil.

Brilliantly atmospheric noir film, sparked by Milland's creepy, unnerving rendition of The Devil, and fine work by Totter as a 'gangster's moll' surrogate. Perhaps in an attempt to not upstage Milland, Mitchell is fairly subdued and seems to lack credibility as a well-connected politician, but the film remains gripping and enthralling throughout.

"Alias Nick Beal" spins a classic tale of power and its corrupting influence, with a devilish twist at the heart, brought to life by the adept Ray Milland. Despite the predictable path the story may take, there's a compelling pull to witness Nick's schemes.

watched: 2017, 2024

Ray Milland, Alias Nick Beal (1949), turns-up like one of those 'conscience Devils' you'd see on your shoulders in cartoons, to help the career of DA Thomas Mitchell in a crooked way, which naturally comes back to bite him in the ass. The drama surrounding the political aspect was fairly ordinary, but whenever things would feel boring, Milland would appear like a glaring sinister Satan and things would pick-up again. Quite a lovely dark dynamic.