The Stranger's Hand (1954)

The story behind Graham Greene's story is interesting (the author entered a competition to see if he could win second prize parodying Graham Greene's style) but this adaptation, unfortunately, a "noone believes her" thriller about a young boy who investigates when his father fails to show up to a family reunion in Venice, is dull despite some interesting locations and the post-war kidnapping plot.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Witness To Murder (1954)

Rather optimistically compared to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, this noir has Barbara Stanwyck playing a woman who witnesses a murder in the apartment across from hers and although we are supposed to be thrilled as she contends with the killer, an ex-Nazi and wily gaslighter, he proves not nearly as diabolical as Gary Merrill's infuriatingly defeatist detective.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Twist of Fate (aka Beautiful Stranger) (1954)

Ginger Rogers is Joan "Johnny" Victor, a dame caught between two men, a dreamy but penniless Frenchman and a high-end counterfeiter, in this tiresome 1954 film noir that features lots of ringing telephones and has the main characters running in and out and in and out of Johnny's house getting confused as to who is having an affair with whom, who owes money to whom, and how different items of jewellery are turning up on their different persons.

★☆☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Dangerous Voyage (US: Terror Ship) (1954)

A yacht is abandoned with nothing but a man's shoe on board in this fairly wooden, fairly badly written mystery adventure that moves from England to France and back, and from courtrooms to the open seas and, to quote the movie itself, it "is [a story] alright for a train journey."

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Rear Window (1954)

Alfred Hitchcock's mystery suspense masterpiece has an incredibly elaborate purpose-built film-set of 31 apartments (eight of them fully furnished) and it stars James Stewart as a wheelchair-bound man who entertains himself by sitting at his apartment window observing his neighbours, one of whom may be a murderer!

★★★★★

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The Million Pound Note (US: Man With A Million) (1954)

Two mischevious British toffs make a penniless American in London, Henry Adams (played by a rather dreamy Gregory Peck), the subject of a bet, handing him a million pound note and watching as high society reacts around him, in this enjoyable comedy, a little bit "Brewster's Millions", a little bit Trading Places, based on a Mark Twain short story.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW