Moviecut—Suspense

Suspense

The noir love triangle is similar in someways to James Cain's "The Postman Rings Twice" in this well produced and directed movie. Belita's skating numbers are choreographed by Nick Castle who worked on many a spectacular MGM musical. Barry Sullivan plays a heel down on his luck who gets promoted from peanut sales at Belita's ice skating show to Vice President of the whole production when he invents her daring stunt of leaping through a ring of knives. The only obstacle is his boss who is Belita's husband. A girlfriend from his past also doesn't like his romantic involvement with the star skater and might be the key to his undoing when the skater's husband, thought to be dead in an avalanche, comes back to be the victim of a perfect murder. The ending was a real surprise I couldn't have guessed. It seems too many clues are given at the start, but no one could have guessed the end before seeing it.

Roberta Elva (Belita) is the star figure skater of a popular show. Her husband is the show's owner Frank Leonard (Albert Dekker). He hires Joe Morgan (Barry Sullivan) to be the new manager but he spends too much time with Roberta for Frank's liking. It's an Ice Capades of a movie with a good helping of melodrama. Belita's skating is worth some sort of ticket but it's unlikely to be a movie ticket. Don't get me wrong. She's a fine actress for a figure skater. She has a little sass and a functional amount of acting skills. Along with her ice skating showcases, she is the least of this movie's problems. The story plods along without much tension and I don't know who to root for if anyone. I don't like any of them. Mostly, it's a drag.

When a young Olympic figure skater decides to take up acting, it had to be with some skating sequences. While these were somewhat entertaining, they make the film about ten minutes longer. Since the title is "Suspense," this detracts a bit. Still it has many noir qualities with the taciturn Barry Sullivan pretty much running things. it is a romantic triangle where the third is one too many. Actually, a fourth comes into playas well. Joe, Sullivan's character, has significant baggage. Would this have brought him down eventually? Anyway, it was some fun with reasonable good acting by most of the figures.