The story is set in a small Connecticut commuter town. Alan Ladd plays John Hamilton, an advertising art director who recently quit his job in Manhattan and moved to the town with his wife, Linda (Carolyn Jones of 1960s Addams family fame) so that she could relax and recover from a "breakdown" and he could pursue a career as a painter.
Linda, you see, is an alcoholic with what could only be charitably described as a volatile personality, narcissistic in the extreme. She is constantly belittling John, especially his art which in all fairness does look pretty bad (lame prop people I suspect). Think Picasso does velvet painting for Wal-Mart. For some reason she wears her hair in a 1920s-style page-boy do as if she's headed to a Great Gatsby party.
John is a sad, low-energy, doormat beta male. He's attending a party of the town's elite when wifey barges in with a black eye - she took a drunken tumble on the way over - and accuses him of once again hitting her in one of his allegged rages. He does not in any way defend himself against the slander.
In most scenes he walks about like he has some kind of disability, or weight on his shoulders, and his running is oddly feminine. In the movie he looks about 62, but Ladd was actually in his mid-40s at the time. Linda, we learn, is 28 though she claims to be 23. John should have been played by a far younger looking, more energetic actor. Ladd was badly miscast here.
As for John he much prefers to hang out with a group of children, about eight or nine years old, sketching them as they play in his yard. He takes on a Mr. Rogers persona in these scenes. Innocent then, but today this affinity for kids would end up with a few calls to the police from worried parents.
The pivot point in the movie is when Linda goes missing Gone Girl style, and the townspeople suspect John of murder. John is determined to clear his name, but he faces an uphill battle. The easily upset townspeople are already convinced of his guilt, and form a vigilante mob replete with axe handles, baseball bats, and shotguns! As if this was Alabama 1940 not a sleepy Connecticut bedroom town. More troubling for John: the police are not exactly eager to help him. The sheriff has actually been sniffing around the Hamilton place trying to score with the vampy Linda.
John goes on the run. He soon forms an alliance with the children who hide him and help him prove his innocence. Lots of plot twists ensue, some convincing, some not.
All in all, a weird movie. Direction and cinematography are good. Writing workmanlike. But the movie switches back and forth from a 1950s melodrama to a kids' adventure story to fugitive on the run.
Linda, you see, is an alcoholic with what could only be charitably described as a volatile personality, narcissistic in the extreme. She is constantly belittling John, especially his art which in all fairness does look pretty bad (lame prop people I suspect). Think Picasso does velvet painting for Wal-Mart. For some reason she wears her hair in a 1920s-style page-boy do as if she's headed to a Great Gatsby party.
John is a sad, low-energy, doormat beta male. He's attending a party of the town's elite when wifey barges in with a black eye - she took a drunken tumble on the way over - and accuses him of once again hitting her in one of his allegged rages. He does not in any way defend himself against the slander.
In most scenes he walks about like he has some kind of disability, or weight on his shoulders, and his running is oddly feminine. In the movie he looks about 62, but Ladd was actually in his mid-40s at the time. Linda, we learn, is 28 though she claims to be 23. John should have been played by a far younger looking, more energetic actor. Ladd was badly miscast here.
As for John he much prefers to hang out with a group of children, about eight or nine years old, sketching them as they play in his yard. He takes on a Mr. Rogers persona in these scenes. Innocent then, but today this affinity for kids would end up with a few calls to the police from worried parents.
The pivot point in the movie is when Linda goes missing Gone Girl style, and the townspeople suspect John of murder. John is determined to clear his name, but he faces an uphill battle. The easily upset townspeople are already convinced of his guilt, and form a vigilante mob replete with axe handles, baseball bats, and shotguns! As if this was Alabama 1940 not a sleepy Connecticut bedroom town. More troubling for John: the police are not exactly eager to help him. The sheriff has actually been sniffing around the Hamilton place trying to score with the vampy Linda.
John goes on the run. He soon forms an alliance with the children who hide him and help him prove his innocence. Lots of plot twists ensue, some convincing, some not.
All in all, a weird movie. Direction and cinematography are good. Writing workmanlike. But the movie switches back and forth from a 1950s melodrama to a kids' adventure story to fugitive on the run.