Wordiezett So much average

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Leofwine_draca FEAR is a short, middling thriller from Monogram. The main character is a student deeply in debt to an unscrupulous loan shark, who keeps demanding his next payment. In a fit of anger he murders the moneylender, but thereafter finds himself pursued by a dogged detective who believes he's responsible for the murder but has no proof. So far so straightforward; there's a fair amount of suspense inherent in the premise and it all flows along quite quickly. Darren McGavin has a tiny role early on in his career. However, the whole experienced is soured by one of those ridiculous 'twist' endings which ruins the whole thing.

mark.waltz This is one of those "could have happened" film noir characters where the dark side of the protagonist is revealed to show exactly what somebody is capable of when pushed to the edge. The surprising element of it is that it came from the lowly Monogram studios, best known for the Bela Lugosi "mad doctor" movies, a series of hundreds of B grade westerns, and the Bowery Boys comedies.Medical student Peter Cookson is having financial difficulties and living a life best described as a mess. Landlady Almira Sessions is constantly badgering him for the rent and the state of his room, and he is in hock up to his neck. Learning that a local professor (Francis Pierlot) has stashed cash, he decides to plot the perfect murder, but it appears that once the crime has been committed, his sanity begins to suffer as well. Seemingly friendly police captain Warren William begins to "invite" Cookson down regularly to police headquarters while detective Nestor Paiva begins to follow Cookson and his new girlfriend (Anne Gwynne) around on their dates. Cookson's paranoia begins to grow as the police seem to be closing in on him. And then, bang, crash, the big twist. That's what gives this above average film noir a touch of class, along with the sly way William moves in on the troubled Cookson.The aging William, in his second to last film, gives a humorous and sly performance as the always happy police captain, carrying a pole and a hook as he tries to catch Cookson with the bate of evidence. Cookson seems to be on a front burner of the stove of sanity, getting hot and bothered by every little question that the police ask of him and every knock on his door from the sour pussed Sessions, a delightful character actress who could get laughs simply by sneering at the person she was snooping on and judging. Pierlot, as the victim, may look like some cute little old man, but his character is filled with darkness as well. This is smartly directed by Alfred Zeisler, an American born producer and director with much experience in Germany who used a lot of expressionism in his work especially as evidenced here. Many have pointed out the similarities to Fritz Lang which is evident in the elements Zeisler incorporates. Even at just 68 minutes, this compact little feature oozes in detail and keeps you glued, with top notch camera work by Jack Rose and brilliant editing by Ace Herman. In fact, it is so notable that this is one of the few times in my reviews that I wanted to single out the photographer and editor. The film noirs made by Monogram and Producers Releasing Corporation in the mid 1940's have completely withstood the test of time and deserve to be listed among the classics. "Fear" indeed is one of the very best of them.

RanchoTuVu Peter Cookson is a medical student who receives the bad news that the medical college he is attending is no longer able to afford to grant scholarships. His future becomes suddenly darker as he's faced with having to drop out with only one year to go. How this bad news affects his psyche is more or less what the film is about in a post-war 1940's era take on psychology and dreams. It seems to revolve around a sense of alienation portrayed through a surprisingly riveting dream sequence that occurs on a dark night on the railroad tracks. In spite of its meager budget this movie succeeds in rating fairly high up on the standards of my film scale.

Honus Maltin's summary, and his star-and-a-half rating, for this quickie film noir fails to put it in the context of other, far more dismal Monogram productions. "Fear" has lots of interesting camera-pushes, nice use of close-ups, relatively interesting lighting, and a great nightmare montage. Plus, an expressive touch at the moment the key murder takes place (which I won't reveal) is just brilliant. Three things link this film to Fritz Lang's work--the marked coat (from "M") the dream-frame ("The Woman in the Window"), and perhaps most explicitly the palmreading of Larry's hand, revealing an "M", which stands for. . . . [supply your own dramatic music here]. Noir fans should seek this one one out for sure. Others may not be so impressed.