High Wall

The climax is incredibly clumsy and beyond what I can take seriously, but everything up to it is pretty fun, if a bit absurd. Taylor isn't the most compelling lead, but he does the job and Audrey Totter is surprisingly good as a doctor, a role far removed from her usual glamorous and conniving femme fatales. Herbert Marshall is always fun and his turn here is wonderful. He has a quick scene involving an elevator shaft that is unforgettable.

Expressive camera movement, beautiful shadows, careful compositions. Taylor and Totter are both very good as well, with some memorable supporting performances. Also worth mentioning is the melancholy score. As for the plot, I found it pretty compelling. The only sticking point is the use of a rather lame device at the climax. There were much better ways to handle that. But all around, a really solid flick that I enjoyed very much, especially for its aesthetic qualities.

High Wall (1947) is MGM's answer to Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), pretty much using the same premise. Where it's different is that there was less questions to the guilt of Taylor's character with there being a proper baddie being revealed in this story. Where the film struggles is that it's mostly unfocused and doesn't touch on the right strings to build the tension the same way Hitchcock's film did. However, the final 15 minutes or so where excellent!