Tension

Plot synopsis:
Police Lieutenant Collier Bonnabel (Barry Sullivan) of the homicide department explains that he only knows one way to solve a case: by applying pressure to all the suspects, playing on their strengths and weaknesses, until one of them snaps under the tension. He then cites a murder case involving Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart).
In flashback, the bespectacled Quimby, night manager of the 24-hour "Coast-to-Coast" drugstore in Culver City, is married to the sluttish Claire (Audrey Totter). Saving and doing without, he is able to afford a nice house in the suburbs, but she is utterly unimpressed, refusing even to look inside. She eventually leaves him for the latest of her conquests, rich Barney Deager (Lloyd Gough). Quimby goes to Deager's Malibu beachfront house to try to get his wife back, but she wants nothing to do with him. When Quimby persists, Deager beats him up.
He tells his sympathetic employee, Freddie, what happened. Freddie remarks that if it had been him, he would have killed the man. Deeply humiliated, Quimby takes up Freddie's idea. He constructs a new identity, cosmetics salesman "Paul Sothern," buys contact lenses and flashier clothes, and rents an apartment in Westwood. As he is moving in, he meets his new neighbor, beautiful, sweet Mary Chanler (Cyd Charisse), whom he starts dating.
One night Quimby, identifying himself as Paul Sothern, makes a phone call, leaving a message with Narco (Tito Renaldo), Deager's servant, that he will get Deager for some unspecified wrong. On a later night, he hitchhikes to Deager's place, grabs a barbecue prong and walks through the open patio door. He finds Deager asleep in a chair, but cannot go through with the killing. When he drops his weapon, Deager awakes. Quimby grabs the prong and holds it to Deager's neck, explaining that he came to kill him, but has suddenly realized that Claire is not worth it. Then, seeing that his wife is absent, he mocks Deager, guessing that Claire has said she was going to the movies—the excuse she used while cheating on him. After Quimby leaves, Deager ponders his situation.
Claire later surprises Quimby by returning to him in their Culver City apartment. When he refuses to believe she has come back out of love, she tells him Deager has been murdered. Before Quimby has time to absorb the news, Bonnabel and his partner, Lieutenant Gonsales (William Conrad), arrive to question them. They know that Claire left the murder scene before they were called. She says that she only went to Deager's place as a day guest to swim regularly, and that she and her husband were Deager's friends. Quimby is forced to play along to avoid suspicion. The police are looking for Paul Sothern, the prime suspect. However, following his stated policy, Bonnabel leads Claire on, pretending he is attracted to her.
The police get a break when Mary goes to the Bureau of Missing Persons, concerned about Sothern's disappearance. She brings a photograph. Bonnabel eventually realizes Sothern and Quimby are the same man. However, Deager was shot, and they do not have the gun. Bonnabel maneuvers Mary to Quimby's workplace to identify him, but she refuses to do so, and states that her faith in Sothern is unshaken.
The police arrest Quimby anyway. Under questioning, he tells them his story, but they find it hard to believe. Later, Bonnabel tells Claire that they had to release her husband due to insufficient evidence; he plants the idea that the gun is the vital clue they need to convict Quimby. Claire retrieves the gun from its hiding place under a rock, and plants it in Sothern's apartment. Quimby arrives, followed very shortly by the police. Claire claims she was searching for the gun, and Bonnabel encourages her to continue; she "finds" it under a chair cushion, but then Bonnabel explains that all the furnishings had been replaced, and that Claire has just incriminated herself. Claire is resigned to her fate, but defiantly walks out in the custody of Gonsales. Mary protests that nothing in the apartment has been changed; Bonnabel replies that it would have been too much work. Quimby and Mary are free to resume their relationship.

Tags: revenge, suspenseful, murder

Review:
The director John Berry creates many suspenseful scenes and does all those film noir things we come to expect from a good noir thriller: lots of odd camera angles, excellent use of lighting and shadows, a narrator telling us information after the fact, and a group of players of dubious character.
The rest of the cast is very effective with Barry Sullivan pulling extra duty as policeman and film narrator doing a very credible job, William Conrad adding humour as his partner, Tom D'Andrea being a voice of reason, and lovely Cyd Charisse as Paul's object of affection.
Totter is excellent, and while Cyd Charisse is little more than set dressing, she requites herself well.The techniques of law have certainly changed, as the means of tricking the guilty party in this film is nothing less than entrapment.And for those of you interested in architecture, that great Deco-ish apartment complex featured in the film is still much the same 55 years later, even down to the vines on the railing.
The timid pharmacist Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart) works hard in the night shift of a drugstore to give a good life to his promiscuous wife Claire Quimby (Audrey Totter).
Will Bonnabel finds the truth?"Tension" is a great film-noir, with an excellent story of a meek cuckold that is humiliated when his unfaithful wife moves to the house of her lover and plots an intelligent revenge plan to kill his competitor.
To begin with, when I was in Hollywood in late 2005/early 2006, this was shown on TCM – along with THE BLACK BOOK (1949) – as part of a Richard Basehart double-bill; however, my hotel room’s TV reception was terrible that night and I had to miss out on both films (thankfully, with respect to the latter, I happened upon its Alpha DVD edition as soon as I got back to Malta…but, as for TENSION itself, it is only now that I managed to get to it)!
Still, the same can be said of his leading lady – Audrey Totter – whose femme fatale here was perhaps the most significant role she ever played: interestingly, when I recently watched her in A BULLET FOR JOEY (1955), I had felt the actress was somewhat past her noir prime (though, having checked my review of that film just now, I realize that I failed to mention this fact!)…whereas she’s at the pinnacle of her sensuality, to say nothing of selfishness, in TENSION.
Still, he loses his nerve at the culmination of his plan…only that Gough still turns up dead, with the evidence alarmingly pointing to Basehart himself!; the thing is that he hadn’t reckoned on meeting and falling for wholesome Cyd Charisse (a neighbor at the apartment house where his alter ego resides) – who, when the latter disappears, goes to the Police with a photo she, an amateur photographer, had taken of him!!
This gave Barry Sullivan, the rugged cop investigating the murder (aided by a burly William Conrad continually in search of food), just the break he needed – since no solid case against Basehart had been established up to that point, the latter’s ‘mysterious alter ego’ ruse having worked only too well!
And yet the detective is not a complete dumb-bell – like Humphrey Bogart in THE MALTESE FALCON (1941), he would have been willing to play up to her under different circumstances…but since it’s evident that she was behind Gough’s death, he’s not about to let her get away with it.Finally, it should be pointed out that director Berry was yet another victim of the House Un-American Activities Committee (this was a very sensitive time indeed for Hollywood): after a promising start that included a stint at the Mercury Theatre with Orson Welles, his career fizzled out due to his being blacklisted (though he did contrive to make one last good noir – HE RAN ALL THE WAY [1951] – which, sadly, proved to be the untimely swansong for actor and genre favorite John Garfield who was similarly hounded for his supposed Communist sympathies!) and Berry was forced to go to Europe…where he could only find work helming a variety of mostly unrewarding potboilers..
Meek, mild Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart) is married to sexy, man-hungry Claire (Audrey Totter).
if you want to see cyd looking radiant and innocent, this is a great pic.lloyd gough has a key but small part in this movie, fans of the green hornet will remember him as being on the newspaper staff for bret reed's newspaper.audrey totter, a joliet, illinois gal is tough as nails, just like the "steel city" she hails from.
Richard Basehart-an actor who never received the roles his talent merited-plays Warren Quimby a drugstore employee whose modest salary and aspirations frustrate his more avaricious wife Clare,played woodenly by Audrey Trotter.She leaves him for a wealthy operator ,Barney Deager,who compounds Quimbys misery by beating him up in front of Clare He resolves to take on another identity and kill Deager but while having the opportunity cannot bring himself to do it However Deager is murdered shortly after and suspicion falls on him.The rest of the movie centres on the investigation by the devious and shrewd police detective Collier Bonnabel (Barry Sullivan)and his attempt to get at the truthIt is not a who done it as the identity of the killer is never in doubt and instead the focus is on how the culprit will be revealed The performance ,the pouty and sulky Trotter aside ,are solid and the direction by John Berry brisk and to the pointIt is not a major thriller but solid studio genre film making and worth the less than 90 minutes of your time that will be taken in watching it..
Take away the sappy Clark Kent glasses incognito and the not only unorthodox but also highly unethical, maybe downright illegal even in 1950, method used by Police Lt. Collier Bonnabel (Barry Sullivan) to trap Claire Quimby and you have a truly intense suspenseful murder flick in the film noir tradition..
Richard Basehart and Audrey Totter star as husband (Warren) and wife (Claire) trapped in a dead end marriage: he is a meek pharmacist who works the night shift in a drugstore in order to save enough money to achieve his little domestic American dream.
The always good Richard Basehart stars with Barry Sullivan, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse, Tom D'Andrea, and William Conrad in "Tension," a 1949 B noir.
Basehart plays Warren Quimby, a pharmacist obsessed with his cold wife (Audrey Totter) who is a tramp.
This late-40s film noir has all the right ingredients: murder, a sleazy and deadly female (Totter, with a wonderful gamut of facial expressions), a female with a heart of gold (Charisse), a possibly corrupt cop (who functions as narrator), location shooting, and a wonderful jazzy score by Andre Previn with possibly THE most perfect "femme fatale" theme ever written.
Richard Basehart is convincing as the meek as milk pharmacist, Audrey Totter is terrific as his trampy trashy wife and the supporting cast is strong too, with cynical Barry Sullivan as the cop with some odd investigating techniques and a young Cyd Charisse, looking rather different photographed in black and white than in her later Technicolour appearances-( I think colour gave Charisse an extra glow, whereas Audrey Totter was born to act in black and white.) Tension is fun, twist turning, not to be taken seriously and takes a few jabs at conventional American family life with its aspirations..
Here's a smartly written twisty-turny B-movie film noir which sees meek, mild mannered, bespectacled drug store manager, Warren Quimby played by Richard Basehart struggle to please his cold, floozy wife Claire played by Audrey Totter, who besides having an eye for the good life he can't provide her, has her other one on the flashy, cash-splashing Barney Dieger played by Lloyd Gough.
Honest, by the book Warren suffers from a serious case of love-blindness where Claire is concerned but learns the truth about her when he catches her out with her fancyman and worse, takes a beating from her beau when he confronts the two of them and fails with a pathetic final plea to turn her around.Then a chance encounter with his optician trying to promote new-fangled contact-lenses gives him the idea to change his appearance just by exchanging his glasses for said lenses, buying a new wardrobe and so create an alter-ego fit to murder his rival.
As a bonus he happens upon a pretty new neighbour, played by a young Cyd Charisse and they quickly become an item, but cometh the hour, goeth his nerve and he shirks the planned misdeed, only for Dieger to wind up dead anyway leaving him as the main suspect.The narrative has some plot holes a mile of thread couldn't stitch together, especially when no-one twigs Basehart as his doppelgänger, all I can think is that he must wear the same brand of identity-concealing glasses as Clark Kent.
He regularly crosses back and forth across the lines of duty and justice as he schmoozes Totter for information before a neat twist ties up all the loose ends in a nice big bow by the finish.This isn't quite division one noir, but I enjoyed the playing of all the leads named above, especially Basehart and Totter, also the bluesy soundtrack by Andre Previn as well as the sometimes improbable plot turns along the way.
TENSION starts out promisingly enough but loses steam by the time it gets to the middle point where RICHARD BASEHART prepares to kill the man who took his wife away from him.Then, as a number of contrived plot complications kick in, all credibility is shoved aside as motivations and characterizations are dulled to the point of being incredible.
Nevertheless, if you start watching the film from the start, you'll be hooked into wanting to know how it all pans out.AUDREY TOTTER plays a manipulating femme fatale with the best of them, easily stealing the spotlight as an unscrupulous woman who wants the better things of life that hubby Basehart is unable to provide.
When the man is found murdered, Basehart becomes the likely suspect and spends the rest of the movie slipping back and forth between two identities in an attempt to hide from the police.BARRY SULLIVAN and WILLIAM CONRAD make the most of their roles as police lieutenants and CYD CHARISSE is charming as the nice woman that Basehart is attracted to.
Totter and Basehart, as mentioned, are excellent but Cyd Charisse puts in a surprisingly good performance and Barry Sullivan, as the cop, is perfect every second he is on screen, from the amusing, to camera, opening until the suspenseful very end..
He even leases an apartment in Westwood, calls himself Paul Sothern, and falls in love with neighbor, Cyd Charisse.Meanwhile Claire's Malibu lover turns up dead and police detective Barry Sullivan suspects meek pharmacist Quimby.It is also revealed that Claire (TotterY has led a checkered past as she has a police record from and Diego to Los Angeles.Overall an interesting story of a man whose personality splits, decaying marriages and suspects.A bit convoluted story at the end, but highly recommended for excellent performances, especially Totter and Basehart.9/10..
Audrey Totter plays a materialistic woman cheating on her pharmacist husband (Richard Basehart), a nice guy who is crushed when she leaves him for another man.
Actor Barry Sullivan kicks things off in "Tension" with a pre-credits monologue spoken directly into the camera, in which his police detective character explains his method for getting criminals to trip up and give their crimes away -- he applies pressure to them slowly and steadily until they have no choice but to snap, just like the rubber band he plays with as he speaks.The self-awareness of this opening sequence carries over into the entire film, making this one of the more humorous entries in the film noir cycle.
Richard Basehart plays a man tromped on by his floozy wife (Audrey Totter), who gets so fed up with his inability to stand up for himself that he decides to create an alternate identity and use it to create the perfect murder, killing his wife's new lover.
She's so appealingly sexy, sharp and lurid, especially when compared to the wholesome, bland Cyd Charisse, who plays Basehart's new love interest, that you almost end up rooting for her to come out on top.This film noir is no big deal, but it's an awful lot of fun.Grade: A-.
Hurt and humiliated by his cheating wife Clair, Audrey Totten,and her rich liquor salesman boyfriend Barney Deagen, Lloyd Gough, Warren Quimlby, Richard Basehart,wants to get back at both of them in the worst way.
Coming up with this idea of creating for himself a new identity as Mr. Paul Sothern, by slicking down his hair and wearing contact lenses and then moving into a new apartment complex, Warren plans to go back to Barney's house and murder him making the police think that it was Paul.
It stars Richard Baseheart, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse, Barry Sullivan, Lloyd Gough and William Conrad.
But he of course is still the main suspect, so creating a new identity for himself he sets about enacting the crime only to find there's a mystery to unravel before hard coppers Sullivan and Conrad jump on him from a great height.Totter files in for classic femme fatale duties as Tension thrives on the post-war period of change as many Americans yearned for a better life away from the disillusionment of their current existence.
Baseheart has some brains, he has ideas above his station to commit the perfect crime, but inventing a new identity, which is basically just using contact lenses instead of glasses, it opens up a new avenue for him in the shapely form of Cyd Charisse.Rivkin's screenplay gives Totter licence to bitch up big time, with abuse of her sultry charms and a viper tongue delivering barbs, Totter's Claire Quimby is very much a quintessential femme fatale and subsequently Totter walks away with the movie.
John Berry directed this underrated film noir that stars Richard Basehart as milquetoast husband Warren Quimby, who works as a pharmacist where his bored, philandering and beautiful wife(played by Audrey Totter) hangs out and carries on right under his nose!
Audrey Totter,(Claire Quimby),"The Carpetbaggers",'64, plays the wife to Warren and decides to have a very hot and sexy affair for a different change of menu in her life.
Richard Basehart and Audrey Totter made a great performance in this movie and Barry Sullivan as a wise cop together with your partner William Conrad and don't forget the young Cyd Charisse!!Sooo delightful movie!!!.
Tension is a decent noir movie with a great performance by Audrey Totter as a trashy man-hungry wife who cheats on her devoted husband, who is convincingly played by Richard Basehart.After discovering her infidelity, Basehart leads a double life plotting to murder her new lover but can't bring himself to carry out the dastardly deed.
For me, the highlight of this film noir was simply ogling the two female leads, played by Audrey Totter ("Claire Quimby") - who wasn't beautiful but had an incredible body - and Cyd Charisse ("Mary Chandler"), who had a much smaller role but was pleasing.
Richard Basehart has the lead role as meek pharmacist "Warren Quimby." In order to hatch a plan involving murder, he dons contact lenses and darkens his hair and becomes Charisse's boyfriend, "Paul Sothern." The idea is to kill the man who took away his slimy wife, played almost to perfection by Totter.The fairly-young-looking Basehart, like the two ladies, is very good in this film, his first noir since the excellent "He Walked By Night" released the year before.
However, it's still worth a look today if only for it's two fascinating stars, Richard Basehart and Cyd Charisse.The story is told from the point of view of Police Lt. Bonnabel (Barry Sullivan).
He tells how Warren Quimby, played by Richard Basehart, the night manager of a drug store, is unhappily married to his wife, Claire Quimby (Audrey Totter).
Finally, Warren squares things with the ever-tolerant Mary before the fadeout.Like many film noirs, the characters are impulsive – after obsessive pursuit of his wife for the first half of the movie, Barney switches allegiance to Cyd Charisse's character almost as soon as he meets her.
Cyd Charisse, though fine in her role, is a "nice person"--therefore, not the most interesting part in such a gritty film.The story begins with Basehart working as a manager and pharmacist at an all-night drug store.
Later, however, when the jerk IS murdered and the cops naturally assume Sothern did it, this creates a problem--particularly because Basehart didn't do such a great job hiding the trail leading back to him.All in all, it's a pretty interesting film and I liked the plot.
Warren Quimby(Richard Basehart) is a mild-mannered pharmacist with a minimal existence, but with hopes and dreams of a much better life with his wife Claire(Audrey Totter).
Here, we have a meek pharmacist, Warren (Richard Basehart), whose wife Claire (Audrey Totter) cuckolds him right under his nose.
Great performances from all the principles: Audrey Totter, Richard Basehart, Cyd Charisse, and Barry Sullivan.
In come the detectives who suspect the milquetoast, but persevere when things lead in a very different direction.Richard Basehart, whom I always thought was an underrated actor, is excellent as the milquetoast/druggist.I have to give credit here to Audrey Totter, an actress it's rather difficult to like as she usually played rather slimy characters...as she does here.
While the film focuses on Richard Basehart's part as a jilted husband, it's actually Audrey Totter who turns out to be in the middle of the main plot.
Tired of her life with him, she takes up with another and leaves him.Basehart changes his name and puts on contact lenses in his plot to kill the guy, only to have a change of heart and find love with his new neighbor, played surprisingly by Cyd Charisse, in a totally non-musical, non-dancing role.The only problem is that wife Totter kills the guy and tries to blame her husband for the crime.