- Undercurrent (film)
Infobox Film
name = Undercurrent
image_size = 240
caption = Lobby Card
director =Vincente Minnelli
producer =Pandro S. Berman
writer = Story: Thelma Strabel Screnplay: Edward Chodorov
starring =Katharine Hepburn
Robert TaylorRobert Mitchum
music =Herbert Stothart Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
cinematography =Karl Freund
editing =Ferris Webster
distributor =MGM
released =November 28 1946 (U.S.A.)
runtime = 116 minutes
country =United States
language = English
amg_id = 1:75819
imdb_id = 0039066"Undercurrent" (1946) is a
film noir drama directed byVincente Minnelli . The screenplay was written by Edward Chodorov, based on the novel "You Were There" by Thelma Strabel. The motion picture featuresKatharine Hepburn , Robert Taylor,Robert Mitchum , and others. [imdb title|id=0039066|title=Undercurrent.]Plot
Ann Hamilton (Hepburn) is a young bride who begins to suspect that her charming husband Alan Garroway (Taylor) is really a psychotic who plans to murder her. Nor can she ignore the shadow of her brother-in-law Michael Garroway (
Robert Mitchum ), whom she's never met but has been told so much about.Cast
*
Katharine Hepburn as Ann Hamilton
* Robert Taylor as Alan Garroway
*Robert Mitchum as Michael Garroway
*Edmund Gwenn as Prof. "Dink" Hamilton
*Marjorie Main as Lucy
*Jayne Meadows as Sylvia Lea Burton
* Clinton Sundberg as Mr. Warmsley
* Dan Tobin as Prof. Joseph Bangs
*Kathryn Card as Mrs. Foster
* Leigh Whipper as George
*Charles Trowbridge as Justice Putnam
*James Westerfield as Henry Gilson
* Billy McClain as Uncle BenCritical reception
When the film was released the staff at "Variety" magazine lauded the film and wrote, "Undercurrent is heavy drama with femme appeal...Hepburn sells her role with usual finesse and talent. Robert Mitchum, as the missing brother, has only three scenes but makes them count for importance." [ [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117796004.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&query=Undercurrent "Variety"] . Film review, 1946. Last accessed:
March 29 2008 .]Critic
Bosley Crowther also liked the film and wrote, "However, that is "Undercurrent"-—and you must take it upon its own terms, which are those of theatrical dogmatism, if you hope to endure it at all. If you do, you may find it gratifying principally because Miss Hepburn gives a crisp and taut performance of a lady overcome by mounting fears and Mr. Taylor, back in films from his war service, accelerates a brooding meanness as her spouse. You may also find Robert Mitchum fairly appealing in a crumpled, modest way as the culturally oriented brother, even though he appears in only a couple of scenes. And you may like Edmund Gwenn and Jayne Meadows, among others, in minor roles." [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9F0CE1D7103BE433A2575AC2A9679D946793D6CF&oref=slogin Crowther, Bosley] . "The New York Times ", film review,November 29 1946 . Last accessed:March 29 2008 .]More recently, critic Dennis Schwartz wrote, "Director Vincente Minnelli...known mostly through his upbeat MGM musicals changes direction with this tearjerker femme appealing romantic melodrama, that can also be viewed as a heavy going psychological film noir (at least, stylishly noir through the brilliantly dark photography of Karl Freund)...Though overlong and filled with too many misleading clues about which brother is the baddie, the acting is superb even though both Katharine Hepburn and Robert Mitchum are cast against type (a weak woman and a sensitive man). It successfully takes on the theme from "Gaslight"." [ [http://www.sover.net/~ozus/undercurrent.htm Schwartz, Dennis] . "Ozus' World Movie Reviews," film review,
May 13 2006 . Last accessed: March 29, 2008.]References
External links
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* [http://members.aol.com/MG4273/minn.htm#Undercurrent "Undercurrent"] at the Films of Vincente Minnelli.
* [http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews31/undercurrent.htm "Undercurrent"] at DVD Beaver (includes images).
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