Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

secondtake Alias Nick Beal (1949)A nice discovery! I'd never heard of this film, though I pride myself on following the noirs that are out there (mostly on TCM these days, having used up all the DVD released films). If you start with some doubt in the overly dramatic beginning credits (lightning, rain, and a Waxman score that is over the top), don't quit. We get a classic noir voice over by leading man Ray Milland, and then we're in the classic noir milieus.Thomas Mitchell is at first the main man, and he's great in his inimitable way (though always better in supporting roles). And other character actors fill in the scenes as we see a man ready to run for governor and a whirlwind of corruption and wheeling around him. This doesn't sound like a noir, actually, but call it a crime and suspense film. It's good, moves fast, keeps an edge.Milland shares the lead, entering on a foggy dock as the music turns dour. Cinematographer Lionel Linden has a field day with dramatic light and atmosphere (he's most famous for "Manchurian Candidate," though see "Blue Dahlia" for starters.) And he helps a lot because the movie is otherwise a kind of clever drama. There is one trick behind it all, which I can't mention, and you might not buy into it (and it certainly makes this a weird noir, and maybe even a weird crime film). But it makes it original in all the dark interiors and night scenes.So what makes the film not quite click? One is Milland, who is stiff and dry (as usual). The other is Mitchell, who has a wonderful ease on camera but who doesn't have the bearing of a powerful man—a savvy top notch prosecutor who is being swept into high end politics. And the "trick" to it all makes it less worldly and gritty than this kind of scenario needs. It is overall a kind of Faust story—the devil tempting a good man who is willing to "sell his soul" to do the right thing.And what of Audrey Totter, you ask? Yes, she's the usual wonderful "dame," the femme fatale with airs, in this case. Her role is too small and too restrained, however. In fact, maybe everyone is restrained, a bit, not rising to the level of the visuals, which are not a bit restrained.That Hollywood ending? Read your Faust.

Alex da Silva Thomas Mitchell (Foster) wants to run for Governor and rid the town of corruption, but corrupt Fred Clark (Faulkner) stands in his way. Enter Ray Milland (Nick Beal). Milland can offer Mitchell what he needs to take power.Tony Blair's PR spin-doctor Alastair Campbell is obviously the inspiration for this film. Milland plays the role of domineering adviser to Thomas Mitchell, and Milland gets his way. The cast are all good in this film, with fallen girl Audrey Totter (Donna) getting a special mention – she is funny, intuitive and tragic all at the same time. I thought the film was a bit talky at the beginning but it does seem necessary in order to set the scene. And there certainly is an air of mystery when Milland appears. There are various good scenes, my favourite being when Totter ends up speaking the dialogue that she has just rehearsed with Milland. At first she dismisses Milland for talking nonsense, but there comes a moment when she is with Mitchell and she realizes what is happening. Some of the rehearsed dialogue did not make sense to her when first repeated. But it all fits now. It's well acted and directed and it's the most memorably chilling moment for me. Good direction, effective camera shots and a good music score round out the other film highlights.So, if you fancy running for any kind of position of power in the political arena, just remember to carry a bible with you……..or there may be trouble.

garyotoole I've seen this film perhaps twice in my life and why it 'sticks' in my memory so vividly is quite beyond me. It's very atmospheric and for a young boy, not quite in his teens, when he first saw it, it scared me to bits, I hope it arrives on DVD soon, it would be a welcome addition to my collection. Ray Milland plays the titled Nick Beal, a shadowy figure who is, or is not Old Nick AKA; The Devil himself. This guys oilier than a tin or sardines, but always charming and mysterious. From what I can remember, it's a run on the Faustian themes of selling your soul for the things you think you want, a contract written in blood and the love of a beautiful young girl. I compel the people who own the rights to this film to release it, it's wonderful and needs to be shared AND REMEMBERED!

theowinthrop Ray Milland managed to do something that few critics were ever willing to admire him for. He was a good looking man of Welsh (not English) ancestry, who could play members of the English upper class. But he was always willing to stretch a bit more than other similar actors. For one thing, he could play villains. Even in his early career he was frequently cast as a weakling or a gigolo (as in "We're Not Dressing"). He was willing to experiment with comic roles as well as straight drama. The result was that from 1942 to 1951 or so Milland was a Hollywood star. He played the leads in films as various as "Reap the Wild Wind", "The Major and the Minor", "The Ministry of Fear", "The Big Clock", "The Lost Weekend", "Golden Earings", and "Alias Nick Beal". While some of his films were comedies (such as "The Major and the Minor" and "Skylark") quite a number were dramas or even melodramas. And some of his characters skirt the edge of acceptable behavior. He is a man who has just been released for committing a mercy killing of his wife in "The Ministry of Fear". Although he is basically innocent, he is a flirtatious type in "The Big Clock". Even in Wilder's "The Major and The Minor" there is a moment when Milland, smiling at the thought of what a real "knockout" "Sue-sue Applegate" (actually grown-up Ginger Rogers) is, suddenly gets a really pained look in his face - he does not like that he's thinking lascivious thoughts about a child.His deserved "Oscar" for "The Lost Weekend" is another example of this dark side - he is supposed to be a writer, but he is a poseur with a serious drinking problem. In fact, he contemplates suicide at the conclusion of the film, only to be stopped by Jane Wyman.In "Alias Nick Beal" he played his most sinister part (except possibly Tony Wendice in "Dial "M" For Murder"). Here he played Satan, and he is in total control of the game throughout of the movie - the game being politics and power over people. On one level, if one forgets the supernatural elements, "Alias Nick Beal" is as good an abject lesson in the back room deals of American politics as the comedies "The Senator Was Indiscreet" or Preston Sturges' "The Great McGinty". Only here, with violent death thrown in, the seediness of it all becomes more apparent. Possibly the best moment is when the honest, and mostly honorable, Thomas Mitchell is forced to shake hands with Fred Clark, the most notorious political boss in the state. On the other level is the serious attempt to keep some religious allegory in, with people like George Macready (here in a rare good guy part) noting that Beal resembles an ancient picture of the Devil, and that "Los islas de las almas perditas" where Beal comes from means, "The Island of Lost Souls". Religion does play a crucial role in the film, including it's completion.Leslie Halliwell made the observation that after this film none of the stars ever did as well again. This is not true. Milland did play the evil Tony Wendice, and Macready went on to the mad French general in "Paths of Glory". But more important, Milland kept showing his ability to stretch in the remaining decades of his life. Besides writing his interesting autobiography "Wide Eyed in Babylon", he directed several films, he appeared in several televisions series (one of the few stars who did not fear the new medium - and he was rewarded here too, for in the 1970s and 1980s he was still appearing while many contemporaries retired). Finally he capped his career as the snobbish father in "Love Story". Actually his career is an example of just what can be accomplished if a person is not ashamed to jettison useless or outdated personalities for new ones.