Movie Comment

I’d wanted to see Tension (1949) ever since I read sovay’s review two years ago, and yesterday I finally located a full-length copy on a dodgy Russian website and watched it through. Andrew listened to the first two-thirds and finally insisted I join him on the couch so he could see the picture on my iPad screen. He still hates Barry Sullivan’s police lieutenant, however his actions may have eventually played out.
 
Sovay has already described this noir better than I can, so I’ll just add my observation that while the protagonist of this film creates his own doppelgänger and his unfaithful and unsympathetic wife has that spooky boudoir-doll effigy of herself, the heroine has her own avatar in the form of that little pipe-cleaner poppet she slips into “Paul’s” jacket breast-pocket, from whence it slips out just in time to meet his eye and finally convince him he doesn’t need to commit the murder he’s been planning. I wonder if it would ironically be found and serve as an incriminating clue, but no, it’s just the shoulder-angel Warren needs to counter the suggestions of Freddie. It wasn’t till afterwards it occurred to me Mary made it from Warren/Paul’s pipe-cleaners, for his actual pipe.