Undercurrent (1946 film)
| Undercurrent | |
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theatrical film poster
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| Directed by | Vincente Minnelli |
| Produced by | Pandro S. Berman |
| Screenplay by |
Edward Chodorov George Oppenheimer Marguerite Roberts |
| Based on | "You Were There" in Woman's Home Companion magazine (1944-45) by Thelma Strabe |
| Starring |
Katharine Hepburn Robert Taylor Robert Mitchum |
| Music by |
Herbert Stothart Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco |
| Cinematography | Karl Freund |
| Edited by | Ferris Webster |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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116 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,644,000 |
| Box office | $4,327,000 |
Undercurrent is a 1946 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.
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 she's never met but has been told so much about.
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."
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Wikipedia