High Wall
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Steven Kenet catches his unfaithful wife in the apartment of Willard I. Whitcombe, her boss, and apparently strangles her. Believing he killed her, he attempts to commit suicide by driving his car into the river, even though they have a 6-year-old son. Kenet survives but is sent to the county psychiatric hospital for evaluation to determine if he is sane enough to be charged with murder. He has no memory of what happened, likely due to a pre-existing brain injury from the war.
Dr. Ann Lorrison takes an interest in his case, and him. Surgery could cure his brain injury, but he refuses to consent to it, preferring a life in an insane asylum to a probable murder conviction. However, when Lorrison informs him that because his mother has died, his son will be sent to an orphanage, he changes his mind. (In fact, Lorrison has obtained temporary custody of the six-year-old.)
Henry Cronner, janitor of the apartment building, attempts to blackmail Whitcombe. After being rebuffed, Cronner goes to see Kenet, hinting he can save him but withholding details until Kenet can pay. Whitcombe then sends Cronner plummeting to his death down the building's elevator shaft.
Kenet undergoes "narcosynthesis" -- a light dose of sodium pentathol -- to help him remember what happened. He recalls blacking out just as his hands were around the unfaithful woman's neck and later regaining consciousness to find her dead body nearby. Kenet escapes from the hospital and, taking a reluctant Lorrison along, breaks into Whitcombe's apartment. He recreates the scene, in hopes of jogging his memory, then returns to the hospital before he is missed.
Whitcombe visits the hospital and provokes Kenet by confessing to the two murders; as he had hoped, he is attacked by Kenet, making the latter look like a homicidal lunatic. (Whitcombe had tried to break up with Helen Kenet after finding her husband unconscious in his apartment, but she threatened to cause a scandal, ruining his chances of becoming a partner in his publishing firm.)
In desperation, Kenet breaks out of the hospital again. This time, despite a police manhunt, he manages to get to Whitcombe and subdues him. With the help of sodium pentathol administered by Lorrison, the murderer confesses everything to them and the police.

Review: This is probably Robert Taylor's first real film noir.
He is revered in some circles for work a decade later such as Nicholas Ray's "Party Girl." I think he is excellent in "High Wall." He plays a decorated war vet who is accused of murder.
Except that the hypnotherapist assigned to his case is a beautiful woman who kind of likes him.Cast in the role of the psychiatrist is one of the great staples of film noir, Audrey Totter.
THE HIGH WALL gives Robert Taylor a chance to demonstrate that he was a very capable actor and much more than just a pretty face.
Audrey Totter, as a psychiatrist who decides to help him prove he did not kill his wife, makes a strong impression opposite him.
And Herbert Marshall is quietly effective as a mysterious man who knows the truth.All of it is directed in brisk film noir fashion by Curtis Bernhardt with the accent on dark shadows and rainy streets to give it the proper noir atmosphere.
It's a well-paced thriller that makes use of psychiatric trends that may date the film today--but it's all done with such authority that whatever script contrivances are present don't really matter.
Robert Taylor in High Wall finds himself accused of wife Dorothy Patrick's murder.
There he meets psychiatrist Audrey Totter who's committed to rehabilitating him and loving him, not necessarily in that order in a given time in the film.Though the story tends to go into the melodramatic the cast, especially Taylor give fine performances.
Look also for great performances by Herbert Marshall as Patrick's boss and Vince Barnett as a blackmailing janitor with arthritis.High Wall was Taylor's second film upon returning to MGM and it marked a step up from his first film Undercurrent.
Robert Taylor is Steven Kenet, accused of killing his unfaithful wife in "High Wall," a 1947 film noir also starring Audrey Totter and Herbert Marshall.
Audrey Totter is Ann, the psychiatrist who takes in Steve's small son as well as works with her patient to try and uncover the truth.
Herbert Marshall plays his dead wife's boss.After World War II, Hollywood began to explore mental and emotional disorders and the use of psychiatry to unlock the traumas of the mind.
Meanwhile, the Taylor character, once he has surgery, has a mind of his own and is constantly slipping out or in the psychiatrist's office window, hiding in her car, and visiting the scene of the crime.
There are also some very funny bits throughout, including a scene where Steve meets the public defender.This is one of Robert Taylor's best performances.
Herbert Marshall seems somewhat miscast and is too lethargic for a role that requires some emotional range.Very watchable for handsome Taylor's excellent performance..
The excellent German director Curtis Bernhardt made this powerful, brooding noir film complete with some expressionist lighting effects in the aftermath of the War. In it he expressed as well as anyone the trauma of the brain-injured returning war veterans, whose presence haunted America in the late 1940s.
Robert Taylor gives a fine performance as a former colonel whose brain injury has returned, giving him headaches, partial amnesia, and violent mood swings.
In this state, he returns home to find that his wife, a war bride, has become the mistress of a creepy religious publisher played to perfection with his most urbane and fastidious menace by Herbert Marshall.
I am surprised that this film was never given its due credit for its strengths while its weaknesses have been highlighted.It is obvious to a casual viewer that the performance of Robert Taylor is superior to most of his other films that exploited his physical attributes more than his innate talent.
Director Curtis Bernhardt, with European experience behind him, utilized the range of emotions that he could extract from Taylor and the usually "wooden" Taylor emerges as an intelligent, purposeful individual.The obvious weaknesses is the science of psychotherapy, brain surgery and truth serums that are presented in the film, which we now know is antiquated and is incorrect.
The former WWII pilot Steven Kenet (Robert Taylor) is captured by the police after driving his car off the road into a river with his deceased wife.
Kenet has a brain injury from the war that provokes amnesia and the justice department needs to know whether he may be charged of murder or not.
Dr. Ann Lorrison (Audrey Totter) is assigned to treat him and offers a surgery to cure him but refused by Kenet.
He has some good scenes as a World War II vet who sustained head injuries and whose return to civilian life is plagued by headaches--and worse, incarceration in a county mental hospital after he is suspected of murdering his wife.
Besides, the movie tips its hand as to the murderer's true identity before Taylor even appears.That first glimpse of Taylor is a stunner--he's at the wheel of a car speeding out of control, an apparently dead blonde female (his wife as it turns out) at his side, his face full of madness and anguish.
The relationship between Taylor and his psychiatrist (Audrey Totter) strains credibility, though it does push the plot forward to a fairly exciting, if not believable, conclusion.
It stars Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter, Herbert Marshall, Dorothy Patrick and H.B. Warner.
Music is by Bronislau Kaper and cinematography by Paul Vogel.Suffering from a brain injury sustained during the war, Steven Kenet (Taylor) is further rocked by the realisation that he may have strangled his wife during one of his blackout episodes.
Committed to a county asylum, Steven responds to treatment by Dr. Ann Lorrison (Totter) and comes to believe he just might be innocent of his wife's murder.
Can he in fact get out of the asylum to find proof?By 1947 film noir had firmly encompassed the plot strand involving returning veterans from the war.
Where except for a daft method used to bring the story to its conclusion, it's a well thought out and intelligent picture.The pairing of Taylor and Totter is one of the film's strengths, they are helped no end by having parts that requires them to veer away from roles that they were accustomed to.
Robert Taylor, (Steven Kenet) plays the role as a pilot during WW II and received many medals, however, he was injured and needed brain surgery and eventually he returns home to be with his wife.
The court of law knew that Steven was a war hero and had a good military record, decided to put him in a mental hospital because of his previous brain surgery.
Dr. Ann Lorrison, (Audrey Totter) is Steven's doctor in the hospital and she tries to find out just what is wrong with him and if he really killed his wife.
Whitcombe, ( Herbert Marshall) hired Steven's wife at his law firm and offered his assistance to the hospital in order to arrange for financial aid for his young son of 6 years of age.
Audrey Totter gave an outstanding performance and is a rather under rated actor who appeared in many films, as of this date, Auderey is 90 of ages.
Was he insane - or did he even do it at all?Robert Taylor puts in one of the best performances of his career, and is well supported by the rest of the cast and the excellent direction.
He is told her husband, World War II bomber pilot Robert Taylor (as Steven Kenet), has returned to the USA from Burma.
It turns out the beautiful blonde was strangled and Taylor is suffering from post-War stress and a brain injury.
Although he doesn't recall killing his wife, Taylor confesses and is committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Attractive (and single) psychiatrist Audrey Totter (as Ann Lorrison) is assigned Taylor's case.
The romance is routine and ending questionable, but "High Wall" is well worth scaling.******* High Wall (12/17/47) Curtis Bernhardt ~ Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter, Herbert Marshall, Vince Barnett.
Once he does, he begins to suspect that he wasn't responsible for his wife's death after all and so begins a fight with the hospital's staff to convince them that he's not a raving nutjob and merely seeks the truth of what happened.We know he's not guilty, mostly because he's played by Robert Taylor, and the female doctor assigned to his case (played by the lovely Audrey Totter) begins to realize that too, right around the time she starts to fall in love with him.
The film looks like a noir, but's its really just a piece of melodramatic hokum in noir clothing.Taylor and Totter make a rather stiff pairing.
Herbert Marshall makes an effectively oily villain though, and he provides the movie the majority of whatever pizazz it has.Released shortly after WWII, the film more than anything is a laughable "warning" about what happens when men go off to war and the womenfolk stay behind.
Steven Kenet, suffering from a recurring brain injury, appears to have strangled his wife.
I haven't seen any other movie with Robert Taylor so it may be that this is his best performance.
Here we have Robert Taylor accused of murdering his wife and sent to an asylum.
Despite the Dated Psychological Elements Often Attempted in the Noir that were Misunderstood and some Plot Points, Like the Brain Surgery, that are Contrived to Say the Least, this is a Pulse-Pounding Picture Drenched in Shadows and Rain.Along with Offbeat Characters and a World Out of Whack this Murder Mystery is High Entertainment for Film-Noir Fans.
Audrey Totter is Stretched as a Psychiatrist and Herbert Marshall is Creepy Playing Against Type.There is Much Mood and Atmosphere and the Cinematography is Ripe Film-Noir with Expressionistic Lighting and those Swirling Flashbacks and Drugged Surrealism.
A high speed sequence in one of the early scenes in which Steven Kenet (Robert Taylor) drives a car recklessly and crashes with his wife's dead body in the front passenger seat, effectively grabs the audience's attention and provokes interest in what events had led to such a dramatic incident.
Equally bizarrely, there is also the spectacle of a psychiatrist who goes completely off the rails when she takes a series of actions which are seriously unprofessional.Steven Kenet (an ex-bomber pilot) is arrested after his wife's murder but genuinely can't remember whether he killed her or not and is therefore, referred to a Psychiatric Hospital for assessment.
Steven's six year old son had been living with his mother and one day when Dr Ann Lorrison (Audrey Totter) is trying to persuade him to change his mind about the operation, she tells him that his mother has died and that unless he has the operation, there is no possibility that he could be declared mentally fit enough to deal with his own finances and his son would then have to be admitted to the county orphanage.
This leads Steven to believe that he may be innocent and he then agrees to be given the truth drug (sodium pentothal) so that he can describe to Ann all that he remembers from the night of his wife's murder.
He can remember starting to attack his wife and then when he woke up she was dead.Ann goes to her car and is surprised to find Steven is in the back seat.
Robert Taylor turns in a very good performance as a man whose condition makes him tense and truculent at times and whose predicament also makes him anguished and confused.
Robert Taylor is harried and tense, and is not sure himself if he is guilty of murder.
Audrey Totter, plays Dr. Lorrison, the shrink in charge of his case, and she thinks he is re- pressing the fact that he did kill his wife, who he found in the apartment of her boss, ready to have a liaison with him.
When the boss, Herbert Marshall returns home, he is confronted by the same murder scene that he had cleaned up.
Of course they drug Marshall and he confesses leaving the Doctor and Kenet to move on and help the little son he loves so much.
He stars as a possible insane killer who tries to prove his innocence.The film also showcases the acting talent of Audrey Totter.
For a change, she is in a major role and not relegated to the many supporting roles she did in films.Much of the action takes place in an asylum where Taylor is committed after allegedly strangling his wife.Marshall Thompson is wonderful as the sinister boss who is the killer.The black and white photography depict the trouble that Taylor is in as he tries to prove his innocence.
When his mother suddenly dies, he needs to raise his 6 year old son.Totter is the compassionate psychologist who takes the child in and gradually comes to realize that Taylor is an innocent victim.This is a very interesting psychological thriller..
Ex-bomber pilot (Robert Taylor) with brain damage confesses to the murder of his wife and is committed to an asylum.
You know from the beginning that, despite his desperate appearance and confession, Taylor is not guilty of the murder.
This was made during the glamour years of Hollywood -- there's just no way the two prettiest people in the movie aren't going to get together by the end.What it does have going for it is a dark film noir atmosphere.
And the only reason I didn't guess the final ending was: it was so unrealistic, it never occurred to me that it might happen.Robert Taylor is rather boring throughout the film, although enjoyable to look at with his handsome face covered with beard stubble during most of it.
His lack of sorrow at the death of his wife perhaps makes him seem like the murderer (which Bernhardt desperately and futilely hopes we'll believe), but is otherwise never explained and completely out of character.
This actually had the potential of being used to good effect were any kind of surprise associated with it, but, as I said, the plot and editing hit you over the head with fact that Marshall "did it" in the first couple of scenes, and reinforce it throughout the second half of the film.The insane asylum is more of a gimmick than any kind of chilling locale -- Taylor might as well be staying at a hotel.
The scene of Taylor calmly smoking a cigarette while strapped into an ice-bath epitomizes the casual treatment the film gives the supposed "horrors of Bedlam."Audrey Totter is mousy, unappealing and rather lifeless as the psychiatrist on the case, and also strains credibility past the breaking point in her complete disregard for psychiatrist/patient ethics.
Herbert Marshall appears in the first couple of scenes, then vanishes completely for the next half of the film.
Marshall, after being the recipient of some resounding fisticuffs from Taylor, sees Audrey Totter come into the room, then suddenly he's swirling in a whirlpool.
Only later did I realize he was confessing all under the influence of an injection of sodium pentothal which we never see administered.During the "flashback," I thought it would be revealed that Totter had actually done the murder, and that she had been playing Marshall for a patsy, as well as framing Taylor and subsequently using her role as a psychiatrist to make sure he didn't get off.
The film begins with a woman being murdered and her husband (Robert Taylor) being held for it.
Plus, it has a dandy performance by the always understated Herbert Marshall.By the way, how could Robert Taylor's character have gotten brain surgery yet not even have a bandaged head or scars immediately after this?!
Robert Taylor plays a convincing wronged husband Steven, accused of killing his wife, and, due to the effects of his war time trauma, subsequently locked up in an asylum.
Strangely, that works to his benefit, as Audrey Totter's Doctor Lorrison (Ann) providers sympathetic support.
**SPOILERS*** Robert Taylor as brain damaged ex bomber,in WWII, and cargo, in peacetime, pilot Steven Kenet is found with his wife Helen, Dorothy Patrick, at the bottom of a gully after he ran his car off the road in an attempt to kill himself.
With Kenet's memory of what happened the hours up to his wife's death gone the local D.A can't indite him in her murder.
In that he has to prove that if in fact Kenet indeed murdered Helen he in having a server blood clot in his brain has no recollection of doing her in.The movie then back tracks in trying to find out what exactly happened between Kenet and his wife up until the time she was murdered!
And does it with the help of Kenet's court appointed psychiatrist Dr. Ann Lorrison, Audrey Totter, who unknown to him is looking after his 10 year old son Dickie, Robert Hyatt,at her aunt's house.
Now a declared and certified, by the hospital staff, homicidal maniac after attacking and almost killing Helen's killer who came to visit and provoke him at the insane asylum Kenet is locked away for life in a padded cell.***SPOILERS*** It's Dr. Lorrison who not only believed that Kenet isn't his wife's killer as well has having fallen in love with the tall dark and handsome schlub who finally sets the record straight in Kenet's direction.
Fuzzy and confusing movie about the workings of the human mind in the case of Steven Kenet's very mixed up confused as well as damaged up brain.
Not sure it's noir, but it is a very good film.
I think not, although it's almost necessary to make the script work.This was a good film for Robert Taylor.
Naturally, when the police find him and his wife's strangled body in a car, they arrest him but are forced to send him to a psychiatric hospital for tests -- under the tender ministrations of psychiatrist Audrey Totter.Surprise!
The murderer is the suave lawyer Herbert Marshall, with whom the wife was dawdling.
Well, one stove-in skull is enough for any man.Then, too, we know fairly soon that the debonair Herbert Marshall murdered the wife and framed Taylor.