ridiculous rating

Expected more

An action-packed slog

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The wealthy playwright Myra Hudson (Joan Crawford) is the heiress of a great fortune. However she works and is donating part of her inheritance to foundations. When she watches the rehearsal of her play, she asks the director to replace the lead actor Lester Blaine (Jack Palance) that she believes is not adequate for the lead role. When she returns home, she meets Blane in the same train and they travel together. They stop in Chicago and soon Myra is seduced by him. They get married and live at Myra's home in San Francisco. Myra summons her lawyer Steve Kearney (Bruce Bennett) to change her will and transfer her fortune and properties to her beloved husband. She uses her Dictaphone to record the changes to be done in her will. However Steve will travel with his son Junior Kearney (Touch Conners) to Sacramento and they leave the room. Then Blaine and Junior's girlfriend Irene Neves (Gloria Grahame), who is his lover, come to the room to plot a scheme to kill Myra so that he will be the heir of her fortune. On the next morning, Myra learns that she has forgotten her Dictaphone on and when she will proceed to dictate her new will, she hears the conversation of her husband with Irene. What will she do now that she knows what are Blaine's real feelings and intention? "Sudden Fear" is a suspenseful film-noir with excellent first half. The story of a wealthy spinster seduced by a crook is great until the moment that the lead character learns that he husband and his mistress are plotting to murder her. Her plan to save her life and get rid of them is also great. However her clumsy and moralist attitudes are terrible and reduces what could have been a little masterpiece to a good film-noir only. Joan Crawford has another magnificent performance. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Precipícios d'Alma" ("Precipices of the Soul")

Sudden Fear appealed to me right away as a fan of film-noir, classic film and thrillers. It does get off to a slow start with some uneventful storytelling and parts that could easily have been trimmed, but when it gets going it is just an excellent film, as a film-noir, thriller and a film in general, with a riveting and very suspenseful second half in particular.The costumes and sets are sumptuous and the lighting gives the right amount of chills in the appropriate places. Visually, most impressive was the cinematography(nominated for an Oscar for a good reason), the film is just exquisitely shot and one of the best-looking film-noirs of the early 50s. The dream sequence and the whole second half, reminiscent of the ending of The Third Man, stood out in this regard. Elmer Bernstein's score is hauntingly dynamic and sends chills up the spine sometimes while the film also has a literate script that doesn't hesitate in making the characters interesting and expertly direction.Joan Crawford is superb in the lead role, classic Crawford really and wholly deserving of the Oscar nomination, while Gloria Grahame lights up the screen in a deliciously sultry performance and Jack Palance- also nominated- shows very well early in his career how good he could be in sinister roles(he was also Oscar-nominated for Shane a year later, which I did admittedly did find a much better performance). All in all, starts slow but ends rivetingly, an excellent film noir with the cinematography being especially good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

There's an idea out there that Joan Crawford's life and career after a certain age amounted to "Tina get me the axe," getting drunk, and having campy moments in Pepsi boardrooms. But she worked very, very hard, and this movie - which she heavily pushed herself after being dropped by her second major studio and considered to be 100% washed up - may be the best example of that relentless drive. Yes, she made a lot of bad movies, and we get some of the trademark Joan mugging here (along with the prerequisite shots of her gorgeous gams, and hair and makeup that are more reminiscent of Mommie Dearest than many of her films) but there's such a need to wrap ourselves in camp that it's easy to overlook that some of these movies are perfectly fine, and can be studied for what they are, not for a parody of a parody of a parody.Initially this seems like another generic "woman in peril" noir that aging film actresses made a meal of in this period. Once we get past the awkward courtship and setup of the threat scenes, the whole thing flips on its head. The moment where Myra (Joan) listens to the recording, and along with the usual stock Joan Crawford dramatic closeups of horror, runs to the bathroom to vomit (offcamera, obviously), you know this isn't the typical Joan campfest. Instead of wondering what terrible thing may or may not happen to Myra (Joan), we walk with her as she does her utmost to stave off any and every possible grisly fate in store for her. The movie is, in some strange way, almost a comedy of errors, as both the heroine and the villains make one slipup after another. Some of these cost them their lives. Some of these save their lives. It's a good reminder that no matter how proactive a hero or heroine may be (and Joan is extremely proactive), sometimes you have no control over your own fate. The movie also chooses to ignore the trope of a good person becoming bad (which puts it in line with other underrated noirs of this period like Tension). Myra is a good, kind-hearted woman. Even when she goes down a dark path, she just can't do it. In the climax of the film, we see her still concerned about the fate of people who wanted to murder her for her money. This makes one more emotionally invested in the fate of the character.There are many beautifully shot scenes here - my favorites are the way the telephone in the main murder house always rings so loudly, dominating the headspace of the character and viewer, the fantasy sequence with Gloria Grahame (terrific and terrifically sexy in a role that would have been a throwaway in the hands of many actresses) screaming and screaming (a fantasy scene made even more compelling by Myra's eyes being in the background the entire time, reminding us we're literally seeing through her eyes), Myra going to throw up as Gloria's voice loops on the recorder, Myra seeing herself in the mirror as she waits to carry out her plan; the moment where a horrified Myra realizes how far she's fallen is one of those times where Joan really, really does act, and act extremely well), Jack Palance pulling Gloria Grahame down on top of him on the couch (even for a noir movie this shocked me for the Hays Code era), and finally, Myra walking away into the night, taking her white headscarf off and throwing it into the sewer, almost like a bride removing her veil to truly start life on her own terms. That final shot is so modern and so fresh - the look on her face alone - that it helps make this one of the very best works Joan made, and a damn fine picture on its own merits.

I've watched this movie for a four times in a five months. FOUR TIMES, think of that! This is, of course, a forgotten chef-d'oeuvre which clearly outperforms a very unlikely, far-fetched Hitchcock. And, it doesn't look to be made in 1952. I'd say it was made somewhere in 1956. It's a big difference.The leading role is played by charming, very womanly Joan Crawford. Yes, by Joan. A woman with a beautiful face, nice figure and a strong voice. She was "blood and milk". The character she played in this film, Myra Hadson, was to be murdered. And, this thriller is certainly a big director's and Joan's success. The scene in which she learns about other people's decision to kill her, is IMHO perfect. Perfectly played, perfectly directed, perfectly shot, and perfectly edited. She gradually becomes a point on the wall. She presses herself against the wall. The voice recorder repeating: "I know th... - chk - I know th... - chk - I know th..." - is a great find. This mechanistically repeated sound (which namely is the cause of the turntable cartridge that reaches the end of the track on the shellac disc and jumps back) is a designation of her world that has suddenly became strange and dangerous. The main thing here is namely the mechanical nature of the sound. Something gets wrong with the turntable - and something is going to be wrong with Myra's life. But, how could such a clever and beautiful woman like Myra was, to get to know to and to fall in love with such a suspiciously looking man as Lester Blaine? Maybe she was very naive? He said that Casanova looked exactly like him, but this is to be clarified.As for Joan herself... She was, of course, gifted. Though she looks funny when she discovers a bottle with the poison and her eyes growing fear, she looks very organically in this movie.And, of course, a terrifying scene with a clockwork dog and Myra hiding in a closet. This is the very best from a thriller as a genre.That's why I put 10/10 for this film and a 5/10 for a vaunted Vertigo. A real chef-d'oeuvre.