Sexylocher Masterful Movie

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Spikeopath The File on Thelma Jordon is directed by Robert Siodmak and written by Ketti Frings and Marty Holland. It stars Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Paul Kelly, Joan Tetzel, Stanley Ridges and Richard Rober. Music is by Victor Young and cinematography by George Barnes.Assistant district attorney Cleve Marshall (Corey) falls for Thelma Jordon (Stanwyck) after she seeks help solving a problem with prowlers and burglars. But is there more to Thelma than meets the eye?Probably due to availability issues in home viewing formats, this appears to be one of film noir legends Siodmak and Stanwyck's under seen pictures. Which is a shame, for although it is often tagged as something of a lesser value Double Indemnity, it's a noir that noir lovers can get great rewards from.As we are in noirville the plot isn't at all surprising. Stanwyck fronts up for what we expect is femme fatale duty, Corey looks to be on course for being a hapless loser dude, Kelly is up for some tough copper portrayal, while Rober stalks the edges of the frame as bad news bloke. A despicable crime is at the core of the story, and characterisations are straight out of the dark alleyway (Thelma has murky secrets and ideals, Wendell is unhappily married with a drink problem). Running at 100 minutes in length, the pic does feel a touch too long, especially given that the first thirty minutes is focused on building the principal players, where they are at in their life and the build up of their relationship. This asks for faith in staying with the piece, in hope it rewards for the following hour plus. Thankfully it does.As the crime arrives, we are treated to noir nirvana as per style of film making. It's the middle of the night in a house menaced by shadows as the wind bashes an open window shutter. For a good twenty minutes, prior to - during - and post the crime, the house is a scary monstrous place, perfect for a dark deed to be enacted. The great Siodmak (The Killers, The Spiral Staircase, Criss Cross) is in his element on this, where aided by the superb photographic skills of Barnes (Rebecca, Force of Evil), the staging of scenes and the visuals enhance the moody machinations of the plot. As does Young's dramatic musical score. So with acting performances comfortably on par for the good, the tech credits are high.Irks come with that drawn out first third of film, and the ending poses some question marks as well. Personally I would have liked it to have finished five minutes earlier, but as it stands there's a sort of double whammy with the finale. Some will find it contrived, others will applaud the ultimate outcome since it doesn't cop out. Either way, this is a noir film worthy of seeking out for the like minded purveyors of such things. 7/10

Cristi_Ciopron Very, very good role by Wendell Corey, and very believable, his mistrust and power and commanding resourcefulness, as he is straightened by the events; with the part of Thelma, there's debatable: whether it is lifelike that her affections remains hidden until the denouement, or whether the actress should nonetheless of made it glitter, as it were, now and then (so, whether the leading actress was obtuse, or judicious). Thelma's lawyer stands out, too, with a very sharp performance. Barbara S. does one of her piquant housewife roles from the 2nd half of the '40s, with a mastery (not necessarily an ease) and strength that make her more convincing than appealing. I have tasted the leisure, the relish of one of those superior suspense dramas of the '40s, a movie equivalent of the human comedy, where the tropes of the age's cinema are simply lenses to the plot; and I have also tasted the fun, then the Gothic tonality of the dark old house sequence, with the servant nearing the mansion while the two lovers are fixing the murder scene. I have thought about 'Martha Ivers'; this is grimmer, more suspenseful, tauter than the other movie, and also much more of a romance than a study of jaded people, 'Thelma' is indeed the movie about a 'strange love', and it gains depth, but, thanks to Wendell Corey's role, there's always this undercurrent of passion and depth. Less analytical, as convincing, and very satisfying dramatically. On the other hand, Tony Laredo summarizes what must be to some people the gist of this movie: a story about a fall guy, deceivers and double crossing; which isn't what I take it to be.I do not see the '40s cinema of the USA as breaking with its past.

jarrodmcdonald-1 Sure, there was Martha Ivers. But for quite some time after her electrifying performance in Double Indemnity, Barbara Stanwyck, as one of Hollywood's great femme fatales, became an actress in need of a suitable follow-up to Phyllis Dietrichson. This time, she's found it with Thelma Jordon, the title character of a picture where she is allowed to be even more dangerous and even more sinister than that earlier incarnation of evil. Miss Stanwyck's work as an up-to-no-good dame is first class, and audiences are in for quite a few jolts. Such a thrilling performance is guided by Robert Siodmak, whose direction is on par with Billy Wilder's best efforts.The File on Thelma Jordon is apparently a rather extensive one. In its most gripping moments, the film provides a powerful examination of the justice system-- a cautionary tale, if you will-- showing how someone can get away with murder and manipulate the system to her own ends. We see this when Miss Stanwyck's character is on trial, and it is rather clear she's not going to hang for her misdeeds. There is a long tracking shot as bad-girl number one is brought over from the jail to hear the verdict. Siodmak shows her marching along the street, up the steps and into the courtroom, almost as if it were a victory parade.All throughout this process, Stanwyck shows us the harder edges of the character while suggesting shades of humanity and vulnerability. Another benefit of this production is a special quality that Wendell Corey adds, expertly playing a pansy lawyer who gets sucked into her schemes to evade justice. The actors could easily chew the scenery in this one, but they wisely avoid the temptation to indulge in such theatricality. Thelma Jordon may be guilty of many things, but she is innocent of that.

Robert J. Maxwell Not entirely without interest, this is a rather dark story of Wendell Corey, an Assistant D.A. alienated from his wife and two children, who bumps into Barbara Stanwyck by accident and falls for her. They have a secret affair. Then Stanwyck's wealthy old auntie is shot and killed during a burglary and the evidence all points to Stanwyck, who is brought to trial. It seems like an easy case for the D.A.'s office except that the records show that Stanwyck has been receiving phone calls from a man who continually identifies himself by different names, although he never says, "Is Miss Jordon there? This is Wendel Corey". Corey's boss, Paul Kelly, names the mysterious caller "Mister X", and worries that the defense may introduce reasonable doubt using Mister X as the fomenter.Now, Corey is in an uncomfortable position, to say the least. He's assigned to try the case, convict his lover, and send her to the gas chamber. But he has all kinds of problems. Not only is he devoted to her, not only is HE the mysterious Mister X, but he believes Stanwyck when she tells him she's innocent. He winds up sending her notes, advising her on who to hire as defense counsel, and he sends her five thousand bucks to manage expenses. Corey also decides to bungle the case in as nuanced a way as possible.I ask you, the experienced viewer of old black-and-white crime dramas, is she innocent or is she setting up Corey as the fall guy? Stanwyck is set free. And Corey discovers there is another man in the picture. There have probably been OTHER men, as well. If he is Mister X, there was first a Mister A, then a Mister B, and then .... Mister n. (That's the way you denote a finite string of variables of unknown length in statistics.) Stanwyck spills the beans to Corey. This is known as "cooling out the mark". But she does a very clumsy job of it, leaving Corey in a state of humiliation and despair. Stanwyck has shown no remorse so far. But as she is driving away towards a new life with her Greaseball boyfriend behind the wheel, she decides to coagulate his eyeball with the car's red-hot cigarette lighter and, well, there is a fiery plunge off a cliff, and she winds up dying on a hospital bed. After she makes her final confession to Paul Kelly, she passes away peacefully, the vehicular catastrophe not having disfigured her in any way, her hair and make up impeccably done. Not even her false eyelashes have been disturbed.This movie must have been made after "Double Indemnity" because it follows the same trajectory, more or less. I much prefer the original, or even the remake, of "Double Indemnity," but this isn't an insulting copy, only a less original one. Use caution, though. You have to sit through a sappy soap opera for the first half hour, directed at a glacial pace and completely lacking in conversational sparkle.