High Wall
| High Wall | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Curtis Bernhardt |
| Produced by | Robert Lord |
| Screenplay by |
Sydney Boehm Lester Cole |
| Story by | Alan R. Clark Bradbury Foote |
| Based on | the play by Alan R. Clark Bradbury Foote |
| Starring |
Robert Taylor Audrey Totter Herbert Marshall |
| Music by | Bronislau Kaper |
| Cinematography | Paul Vogel |
| Edited by | Conrad A. Nervig |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,844,000 |
| Box office | $2,618,000 |
High Wall is a 1947 film noir, starring Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter and Herbert Marshall. It was directed by Curtis Bernhardt from a screenplay by Sydney Boehm and Lester Cole, based on a play by Alan R. Clark and Bradbury Foote.
Steven Kenet catches his unfaithful wife in the apartment of Willard I. Whitcombe, her boss, and apparently strangles her. Believing he killed her, he attempts to commit suicide by driving his car into the river, even though they have a 6-year-old son. Kenet survives but is sent to the county psychiatric hospital for evaluation to determine if he is sane enough to be charged with murder. He has no memory of what happened, likely due to a pre-existing brain injury from the war.
Dr. Ann Lorrison takes an interest in his case, and him. Surgery could cure his brain injury, but he refuses to consent to it, preferring a life in an insane asylum to a probable murder conviction. However, when Lorrison informs him that because his mother has died, his son will be sent to an orphanage, he changes his mind. (In fact, Lorrison has obtained temporary custody of the six-year-old.)
Henry Cronner, janitor of the apartment building, attempts to blackmail Whitcombe. After being rebuffed, Cronner goes to see Kenet, hinting he can save him but withholding details until Kenet can pay. Whitcombe then sends Cronner plummeting to his death down the building's elevator shaft.
Kenet undergoes "narcosynthesis" -- a light dose of sodium pentathol -- to help him remember what happened. He recalls blacking out just as his hands were around the unfaithful woman's neck and later regaining consciousness to find her dead body nearby. Kenet escapes from the hospital and, taking a reluctant Lorrison along, breaks into Whitcombe's apartment. He recreates the scene, in hopes of jogging his memory, then returns to the hospital before he is missed.
Whitcombe visits the hospital and provokes Kenet by confessing to the two murders; as he had hoped, he is attacked by Kenet, making the latter look like a homicidal lunatic. (Whitcombe had tried to break up with Helen Kenet after finding her husband unconscious in his apartment, but she threatened to cause a scandal, ruining his chances of becoming a partner in his publishing firm.)
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Wikipedia