Tension is a crime thriller film noir

Film noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

 directed by John Berry, and written by Allen Rivkin, based on a story written by John D. Klorer. The drama features Richard Basehart

Richard Basehart

John Richard Basehart was an American actor. He starred in the 1960s television science fiction drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, in the role of Admiral Harriman Nelson.-Career:...

, Audrey Totter

Audrey Totter

Audrey Mary Totter is an American actress and former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract star of Austrian-Slovene and Swedish descent...

, Cyd Charisse

Cyd Charisse

Cyd Charisse was an American actress and dancer.After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s...

, and others.

Plot

A drugstore manager, Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart), is married to sexy, man-hungry Claire (Audrey Totter). She leaves him for another man, Barney (Lloyd Gough).

Quimby decides to murder the man. He devises a complex plan, which involves assuming a new identity, to make it look like someone else murdered Claire's new boyfriend but can't go through with the killing. Barney is instead murdered by Claire but all the evidence points to Quimby.

Cast

• Richard Basehart
  Richard Basehart
  John Richard Basehart was an American actor. He starred in the 1960s television science fiction drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, in the role of Admiral Harriman Nelson.-Career:...
  
   as Warren Quimby/Paul Sothern
• Audrey Totter
  Audrey Totter
  Audrey Mary Totter is an American actress and former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract star of Austrian-Slovene and Swedish descent...
  
   as Mrs. Claire Quimby
• Cyd Charisse
  Cyd Charisse
  Cyd Charisse was an American actress and dancer.After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s...
  
   as Mary Chanler
• Barry Sullivan
  Barry Sullivan (actor)
  Barry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football...
  
   as Police Lt. Collier Bonnabel
• Lloyd Gough
  Lloyd Gough
  Lloyd Gough was an American theater, film, and television actor.Born Michael Gough in New York City, he was a noted character actor...
  
   as Barney Deager
• Tom D'Andrea as Freddie, Coast to Coast Counter Man
• William Conrad
  William Conrad
  William Conrad was an American actor, producer and director whose career spanned five decades in radio, film and television....
  
   as Police Lt. Edgar "Blackie" Gonsales
• Tito Renaldo as Narco, Deager's Valet

Reception

Film critic Walter Addiego, staff critic at the San Francisco Examiner, wrote of the drama, "They aren't making 'em anymore like this 1949 melodrama by John Berry, and that's too bad... What sticks with you about the film is what a classic, prize-winning sap the Basehart character is, how pathetic and ill-considered are his dreams of domestic bliss, and how easily he's able to shift into a new and quite different identity. All in all, a good example of noirish post-war disillusionment — and it has Cyd Charisse and William Conrad, to boot."

External links

• Tension at Film Noir of the Week (includes trailer)
• Tension film trailer at You Tube