Sunday, July 13, 2008
DIABOLICAL
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was the psychological thriller
with Dorothy McGuire as an hysterical mute woman who nurses a tyrannical matriarch played by Ethel Barrymore.
The plot sort of winds itself up out of nothing. You can sort of see the holes but it moves so fast you don't mind. Well, I didn't.
It is also a "who done it". Someone is killing maimed women. McGuire qualifies as a victim.
There are enough suspects and plenty of thrills in an old victorian mansion, with a spiral staircase, in the middle of a very long thunder storm.
It is quite entertaining and only mildly scary. A bit camp but it lets you in on it and winks an eye.
Barrymore got an Oscar nomination for her performance but it is Maguire who manages to get to us without one word of speech throughout.
I liked it and wouldn't want to see it again. I know who did it.
That makes it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
