Undercurrent (1946 film)
6.6 /10 1 Votes
Director Vincente Minnelli Duration Language English | 6.6/10 IMDb Genre Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller Country United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date November 28, 1946 (1946-11-28) (US) Based on "You Were There"
in Womans Home Companion magazine (1944-45)
by Thelma Strabe Writer Thelma Strabel (story), Edward Chodorov (screenplay) Music director Herbert Stothart, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Screenplay Edward Chodorov, Marguerite Roberts, George Oppenheimer Cast Katharine Hepburn (Ann Hamilton), Robert Taylor (Alan Garroway), Robert Mitchum (Michael Garroway), Edmund Gwenn (Prof. 'Dink' Hamilton), Marjorie Main (Lucy), Jayne Meadows (Sylvia Lea Burton)Similar movies Blackhat , Salt , Brooklyn's Finest , Self/less , Fair Game , Zandalee Tagline An Irresistible Force That Draws a Man and Woman Together! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
After a rapid engagement, Ann Hamilton (Katharine Hepburn), the dowdy daughter of a chemist, weds handsome industrialist Alan Garroway (Robert Taylor), knowing little of his family or past. Alan transforms Ann into an elegant society wife, but becomes enraged whenever she asks about Michael (Robert Mitchum), his mysterious long-lost brother. Ann begins to suspect her new husband of the worst when she digs into the Garroway history and learns that Michael is believed to have been murdered.
Contents
Undercurrent (1946) is a film noir drama directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay was written by Edward Chodorov, based on the novel You Were There by Thelma Strabel. The motion picture features Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum, and others.
An unsuspecting wife of a power hungry husband, is driven to madness by his deception.
Plot
Ann Hamilton (Katharine Hepburn) is a middle-aged bride who begins to suspect that her charming husband Alan Garroway (Robert Taylor) plans to murder her. Nor can she ignore the shadow of her brother-in-law Michael Garroway (Robert Mitchum), whom shes never met but has been told so much about.
Cast
Box office
The film was popular at the box office: according to MGM records it earned $2,828,000 in the US and Canada and $1,409,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $1,001,000.
Similar Movies
Edmund Gwenn appears in Undercurrent and Bewitched. Gaslight (1944). Vincente Minnelli directed Undercurrent and The Long - Long Trailer. Robert Mitchum appears in Undercurrent and Out of the Past. The Suspect (1944).
Critical reception
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."
Critic Bosley Crowther of the New York Times 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."
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."
References
Undercurrent (1946 film) WikipediaUndercurrent (1946 film) IMDb Undercurrent (1946 film) themoviedb.org