Obsession

Obsession: I'd never heard of this 1949 British film noir (released in America under the title The Hidden Room) until stumbling across its grainy print on Tubi, and was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining it was. 

The film follows Dr. Clive Riordan (Robert Newton), a middle-aged London psychiatrist more interested in his model trains than his frisky younger wife, aptly named Storm (Sally Gray).  When the bookish doctor discovers he is being cuckolded yet again by Storm, he decides to put his model trains down and finally do something about it.  Storm is having an affair with a young American man, Bill Kronin (Phil Brown).  In an amusing running sidebar, the doctor's Gentleman's Club friends all lament America usurping Britain's role in the World Order.  Anyway, the doctor, a true egghead, devises a meticulous plan to murder the American bedding his itchy wife. He kidnaps the Yank and imprisons him in a hidden basement, keeping him alive while preparing to dispose of him in his intricately planned murder. Unfortunately, a Scotland Yard Superintendent (Naunton Wayne), who seems a Limey forerunner of Columbo, begins looking into the American's disappearance, and soon suspects the doctor may be up to no good.

I wasn't familiar with any of the four main actors, and if I've seen them in any other films, they made no lasting impression, but they all play their roles convincingly. In particular, Sally Gray is not as mousy as many of the Limey actresses of that era, and if she were in her prime today, she could easily play a South London chav girl.

Blacklisted Hollywood director Edward Dmytryk crossed the pond and crafted a fine crime film heavy on psychological tension with a villain driven by cold rationality rather than uncontrolled rage.  Released 76 years ago, this hidden gem of jealousy has definitely held up well and will keep the contemporary viewers' attention.