Stevecorp
Don't listen to the negative reviews
CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Intcatinfo
A Masterpiece!
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Claudio Carvalho
The wealthy playwright Myra Hudson (Joan Crawford) is the heiress of a great fortune. However she works and is donating part of her inheritance to foundations. When she watches the rehearsal of her play, she asks the director to replace the lead actor Lester Blaine (Jack Palance) that she believes is not adequate for the lead role. When she returns home, she meets Blane in the same train and they travel together. They stop in Chicago and soon Myra is seduced by him. They get married and live at Myra's home in San Francisco. Myra summons her lawyer Steve Kearney (Bruce Bennett) to change her will and transfer her fortune and properties to her beloved husband. She uses her Dictaphone to record the changes to be done in her will. However Steve will travel with his son Junior Kearney (Touch Conners) to Sacramento and they leave the room. Then Blaine and Junior's girlfriend Irene Neves (Gloria Grahame), who is his lover, come to the room to plot a scheme to kill Myra so that he will be the heir of her fortune. On the next morning, Myra learns that she has forgotten her Dictaphone on and when she will proceed to dictate her new will, she hears the conversation of her husband with Irene. What will she do now that she knows what are Blaine's real feelings and intention? "Sudden Fear" is a suspenseful film-noir with excellent first half. The story of a wealthy spinster seduced by a crook is great until the moment that the lead character learns that he husband and his mistress are plotting to murder her. Her plan to save her life and get rid of them is also great. However her clumsy and moralist attitudes are terrible and reduces what could have been a little masterpiece to a good film-noir only. Joan Crawford has another magnificent performance. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Precipícios d'Alma" ("Precipices of the Soul")
LeonLouisRicci
When First Time Viewers of this Film-Noir settle in for Their Fix, the First-Act seems Disappointing. Everything is Brightly Lit, Congenial, Romance Friendly, and Sets-Up what Appear to be a God-Awful Semi-Melodramatic Soap Opera with Wedding Bells in an Aging Woman's Fantasy Land Fulfilled.But when Act Two Unveils the Movie's Intent, a Tense and Gripping Thriller, Viewer Expectations are Elated and for the Next Hour Plus, this Exercise in Extreme (or sudden) Fear is a Devil's Playground of Secrets Revealed, Gut-Wrenching Terror, Revenge, Calculated and Plotted Murder, Sex, and Expressionism.The First-Class Acting from Joan Crawford (maybe her best performance), Jack Palance (in a multi-dimensional role), Gloria Grahame (in typical but effective type), and others, all make this a Curiously Overlooked Film, considering its Cast and Four Oscar Nominations. It has Recently been Re-Discovered as an Upper Echelon Film-Noir Classic.This Movie has an Accelerated, Highly Emotional, Hold-On, Suspenseful Build-Up and after Kicking-In the Film has a Perpetual Propulsive Energy that takes the Audience on a Mind-Trip of Heart Stopping Tension that Never Lets Up until the Sensational Ending through the Dark Streets of the Dark City.
Dalbert Pringle
In real-life Hollywood mega-star, Joan Crawford (aka Mommie Dearest) may have been a lousy mother to her adopted children, but, when it came to being a performer in custom-made vehicles like "Sudden Fear", she was the consummate actress, giving everything that she's got and even earning for herself an Oscar nomination for "Best Actress".In this intense, emotionally-charged, 1952 Thriller/Chick Flick Crawford played successful playwright, Myra Hudson, who, in a whirl of infatuation, up and marries the young, no-talent actor, Lester Blaine, only to find her bubble of bliss ready to burst when she inadvertently discovers that her stud-muffin and his snotty girlfriend are, indeed, plotting out her murder.This well-paced, lushly photographed film, with its superb cast, literally, had me on the edge of my seat during its climatic finale.
PWNYCNY
If anyone has any doubt about Joan Crawford's greatness as an actor, then watch this movie. Her performance is sensational as the playwright who accidentally finds out that she is being set up. The story is compelling and conveys the sense of foreboding and suspense which grabs and keeps the audience's attention. Jack Palance gives a strong and convincing performance as a conman who marries Ms. Crawford. He is suave, urbane and sinister. Yet this movie is a Joan Crawford showcase. She is the center of the story and she succeeds in making this movie a most effective work of cinematic art. The cinematography is outstanding; it captures and conveys the sense of terror as the audience is taken on an emotional roller coaster ride toward a final, exciting conclusion.
