***** Mild Spoilers Ahead *****
"The Naked Edge" is the last film that the famous American actor Gary Cooper was in, wrapping up a career which lasted for over thirty years.
In "The Naked Edge", Gary Cooper portrays a business man who has been accused, but acquitted of murder. After the trial, Cooper's character becomes very wealthy through investments in the stock market. His wife(Deborah Kerr) opens a letter which contains blackmail threats against her husband. She begins to suspect that her husband may have truly committed the murder and begins to do some investigating of her own. What she discovers leads her to conclude that he was the murderer. Her husband is aware of her conclusion and it begins to look as if he may kill her too!
Deborah Kerr, as usual, delivers a terrific performance. Gary Cooper does his best with the dialogue and the role he is given, but it isn't enough to make this film believable to the discerning viewer. The dialogue between the characters is contrived to leave every situation open to the possibility that Gary Cooper is the murderer. The result is that the film quickly becomes annoying. I felt jerked around as a viewer. The film would have turned out better if the director would have been stabbed instead of the victim in the movie! It's not nice to patronize your audience when you are making a serious mystery or suspense film. It's too bad, because both principal actors, Deborah Kerr and Gary Cooper deserved better. I'm not going to go into how irritating the musical score was in this movie. Let's just say it takes melodramatic background music in a film to new lows.
It's a shame I can't give this movie a better review because I so wanted to like it. Thankfully, the superb acting talents of Deborah Kerr and Gary Cooper can be seen in many other great movies which they starred in. Sadly, I rate this movie only a 70/100.
"The Naked Edge" is the last film that the famous American actor Gary Cooper was in, wrapping up a career which lasted for over thirty years.
In "The Naked Edge", Gary Cooper portrays a business man who has been accused, but acquitted of murder. After the trial, Cooper's character becomes very wealthy through investments in the stock market. His wife(Deborah Kerr) opens a letter which contains blackmail threats against her husband. She begins to suspect that her husband may have truly committed the murder and begins to do some investigating of her own. What she discovers leads her to conclude that he was the murderer. Her husband is aware of her conclusion and it begins to look as if he may kill her too!
Deborah Kerr, as usual, delivers a terrific performance. Gary Cooper does his best with the dialogue and the role he is given, but it isn't enough to make this film believable to the discerning viewer. The dialogue between the characters is contrived to leave every situation open to the possibility that Gary Cooper is the murderer. The result is that the film quickly becomes annoying. I felt jerked around as a viewer. The film would have turned out better if the director would have been stabbed instead of the victim in the movie! It's not nice to patronize your audience when you are making a serious mystery or suspense film. It's too bad, because both principal actors, Deborah Kerr and Gary Cooper deserved better. I'm not going to go into how irritating the musical score was in this movie. Let's just say it takes melodramatic background music in a film to new lows.
It's a shame I can't give this movie a better review because I so wanted to like it. Thankfully, the superb acting talents of Deborah Kerr and Gary Cooper can be seen in many other great movies which they starred in. Sadly, I rate this movie only a 70/100.