The Unsuspected

Director: Michael Curtiz Michael Curtiz

Overview

Director Michael Curtiz masterfully tells the fictional story of radio host Alexander Grandison (Claude Rains) as derived from a novel by Charlotte Armstrong. Grandison spookily recites murder mysteries on his radio show, with intimate and excruciating details. The reason he's so good and popular is that some of the murders he presents really are his own. He kills one of his female workers, but her fiancée, Steven Francis Howard (Michael North), threatens to take revenge for her death. Howard tries to convince Grandison's niece, Matilda Frazier (Joan Caulfield), that he is her long-lost husband. Much mystery and intrigue follows. ~ Michael Betzold

Product Details

Release Date:	08/04/2009
UPC:	0883316118931
Original Release:	1947
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[Full Frame]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:43:00
Sales rank:	5,156

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Claude Rains	Victor Grandison
Joan Caulfield	Matilda Frazier
Audrey Totter	Althea Keane
Constance Bennett	Jane Moynihan
Hurd Hatfield	Oliver Keane
Ted North	Steven Francis Howard
Fred Clark	Richard Donovan
Harry Lewis	Max
Jack Lambert	Mr. Press
Ray Walker	Donovan's Assistant
Nana Bryant	Mrs. White
Walter Baldwin	Justice of the Peace,Justice of the Peace
Barbara Woodell	Roslyn
Douglas Kennedy	Bill
Ross Ford	Irving
Art Gilmore	Announcer,Announcer
Lucille Vance	Frizzy-haired Woman
David Leonard	Dr. Edelman
Cecil Stewart	Al, the Piano Player
Faith Kruger	Woman
Bunty Cutler	Woman
George Meader	Fritz
Bob Alden	Messenger
Richard Walsh	Reporter
Ray Montgomery	Reporter
Ed Parks	Waiter
Eleanor Counts	Bride
Alan Ray	Groom,Groom
Jean Andren	Mother of the Bride
Hal Craig	Policeman
Jack Cheatham	Policeman
Joleen King	Maid
Harriet Matthews	Mannish Woman
Martha Crawford	Guest
Wendy Lee	Guest
George Eldredge	Bit Part
Rory Mallinson	Ballistics Lab Technician
Franz Waxman	Composer

Technical Credits

Ranald MacDougall

Bess Meredyth

Michael Curtiz	Director,Producer
Ranald MacDougall	Screenwriter
Charles Hoffman	Producer
David C. Kertesz	Special Effects
Harry Barndollar	Special Effects
Robert Burks	Special Effects
Bess Meredyth	Screenwriter
Everett Brown	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Poor Joan Caulfield, whom Warner Bros. had borrowed from Paramount, is all at sea playing the mystery woman in The Unsuspected, a pale imitation of Laura (1944). A cast of suspicious characters is once again admiring a portrait of a beautiful dead woman only to have the subject of the painting create havoc by returning very much alive. Like Gene Tierney before her, Caulfield cannot possibly live up to the intriguing buildup, but, unlike Tierney, she doesn't have Clifton Webb to make things interesting and is saddled with Claude Rains in one of his hammiest moods. And while Laura at least survived with some dignity from her ordeal, Joan's Matilda is soundly battered by such scene-stealers as Audrey Totter and, especially,Constance Bennett, who, in describing the venal Miss Totter remarks: "They should take her out more often and beat her like a rug." It is of course a professionally produced, directed, and performed melodrama that the brothers Warner present, but Charlotte Armstrong's original story, serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1945, does not exactly bear close scrutiny. Although receiving introduction billing, leading man Michael North had actually appeared in films for at least seven years under the moniker of Ted North.

All Movie Guide - Hans J. Wollstein