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The House Across the Lake (a/k/a Heat Wave) (1954)
Topic Started: Mar 5 2012, 05:43 PM (1,424 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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Hammer was quite happy with Alex Nicol's performance in Face the Music, so kept him around for the next noir. They brought in the delicious Hillary Brooke as the femme fatale.

Alex lives across the lake from the sexy, gorgeous and glamorous Hillary and her old, sick, cranky husband (Sid James from the Carry On pictures). Hillary seduces Alex and convinces him to help her become a widow, but once she gets what she wants, she disappears, and hell hath no fury like a guy betrayed by Hillary Brooke.

Obviously, a cookie-cutter noir plot: why, the darn thing's even told in flashback as Alex's confession. If you're going to do a generic noir, a great cast helps, and while Nicol and Brooke are very good here (her last scene may be the best acting she ever did) and they're handsome and appealing and she's got a nice, nostalgic fan base... Nobody's even going to call them a "great cast". So we find ourselves just waiting for the inevitable ending, not a good thing when you're watching a movie. Some of the dialog is fun (Nicol is a writer; told he doesn't look like one, he says, "I write for money, not posterity." He also says that his downfall was fast women and sloe gin, and you have to appreciate a line like THAT).

Director Ken Hughes went on to make Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. No, really, he did.

Paired on VCI's Hammer Film Noir Vol. 3 (as Heat Wave, the equally-generic American title) with The Gambler and the Lady, already reviewed by me.

Anyway, here's a better look at Hillary. Thanks for reading.

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Edited by Laughing Gravy, Mar 6 2012, 12:03 PM.
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