Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

morrison-dylan-fan Recently finishing the wonderful Canadian Neo-Noir TV mini-series Cardinal, I was pleased to learn from a fellow poster on ICM about a Canadian challenge,where ICMers have to watch as many Canadian titles as possible in a month. Knowing recent productions from Canada,I struggled to come up with any made during the "Classic" era of cinema. Finding out about director Fyodor Otsep after seeing the fascinating Amok during my 100 French films in 100 days,I was thrilled to stumble on his name when I began search for Canadian Film Noir,which led to me listening in on what the city was saying.The plot:Working on a story about an actress who died in a car crash,newspaper reporter Mary Roberts presses lawyer Albert Frédéric on claims from the actress that the suicide of her husband was actually murder. Focusing on his new creation,composer Michel Lacoste allows his marriage to Blanche Lacoste to break down. Seeing nothing left,Blanche kills herself. Finding her body ,Michel fears that Blanche's suicide looks like murder. Hearing Michel's tune,his lawyer Frédéric promises to stop the city whispering and to rid any doubt of the suicide,but only if Michel pays a "debt":To stop Mary Robert's whispers.View on the film:For his final movie, (shot as the alternate French language version La forteresse was being shot on the same sets with a different cast) director Fyodor Otsep (who in 1918 was a Russian film cooperative,but had to flee Europe when France got Occupied) listens in with a sharp use of Morris C. Davis,which Otsep composers to build anxiety over the debt Michel Lacoste is ordered to pay,and the composition playing out over the breakdown of his marriage. Driving over the frosty atmosphere from the outdoor locations of 40's Canada,Otsep conducts a fantastic A Christmas Carol mood into Lacoste and Frédéric's outside encounters via stylish weaving camera moves casting a ghostly whisper around the two.Gradually hitting the notes of doubt,the screenplay by Rian James /Leonard Lee/George Zuckerman/Michael Lennox/Gina Kaus/ Hugh Kemp & Sydney Banks (!) strongly strike a Melodrama edge in the crumbling, fractured marriage of the Lacoste's. Sending the lawyer in,the writers snowball a sinister Film Noir bite,where the suicide of Blanche pulls Michel into the deadly double dealing of Frédéric. Suspecting she is not getting the full story, Mary Anderson gives a wonderful,quick-witted performance as Roberts,who pulls Michel veil of darkness with a real snap. Ploughing Michel into following his orders, Paul Lukas gives a wicked,brittle performance as Frédéric,whilst Helmut Dantine pulls the raw Noir strings of Michel's fear,as Michel hears the city whisper.

JohnHowardReid This unusual film noir, photographed in Quebec by Guy Roe (and his astute second unit cameraman, Charles Quick), pre-dates Hitchcock's I Confess by several years. Hitchcock undoubtedly saw the movie because he used its main musical idea in his remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much. In this original, however, the beautiful "Quebec Concerto" by Andre Mathieu is heard throughout, not just at the climax, because the lead male, Dantine, cleverly plays the composer. Other roles are distinguished by the lovely Mary Anderson (later to steal Last of the Buccaneers) as heroine, Paul Lukas (credibly cast as a shifty patron of the arts), dialogue director John Pratt as the news editor who is not nearly as gullible as he pretends, and the very convincing Joy LaFleur as the hero's shrewish wife. The script co-written by Rian James (of La Otra fame) has plenty of noirish plot gimmicks that keep the suspense mounting right up to the climax which, despite location filming at Montmorency Falls, is, alas, a bit tepid. In fact, I'm not over-fond of the whole idea of encasing the plot in a flashback from a talkative and rather boring sleigh-driver; but even as is, most definitely worth a look. (On a decent player, the Alpha DVD has watchable visuals and good sound).

AlanSquier This is a very good Canadian film. On the face of it, one would expect a strictly routine lady reporter investigating some unusual doings, but it's much more than that. I won't spoil the intricate plot, but it does take concentration to follow. Paul Lukas is, of course, his usual magnificent self The camera work is especially good and the backdrop of a city that most Americans didn't see very much of on the screen is quite good. The classical tone set by Helmut Dantine's character's composition, The Quebec Concerto, is very impressive.One realizes who the villain is from his first appearance and yet the movie achieves not quite Hitchcockian suspense by the end. This is indeed an unjustly overlooked film.

bmacv Whispering City's locale is Quebec City, that odd European fortress set high over the St. Lawrence River; it comes to Gallic life more fully here than in Alfred Hitchcock's I Confess, made a few years later.The death in an auto accident of a long-retired actress spurs crime reporter Mary Anderson to work up a feature story; the woman was sent to a sanitarium years before for insisting that her fiance's death was actually murder. Pursuing a lead, Anderson interviews a prosperous benefactor of the arts (Paul Lukas), who seems curiously bothered by the visit. Currently, Lukas serves as the patron of an impoverished young pianist/composer (Helmut Dantine; the two actors both appeared in Watch on the Rhine). Dantine is working on something called The Quebec Concerto; an oddly scored work, its orchestra features a Sousaphone rearing its brassy bell.An overcomplicated but still compelling plot involves Dantine's disturbed shrew of a wife, who's dependent on injections to make her sleep; the discovery of her suicide, which is made to look like murder (well, it seemed to work once); a blackmail scheme to engineer another murder; and a faked death made to look like yet another murder. (Eagle-Lion was not known for the elegant simplicity of its plots.)Oddly, it all works, if a bit creakily. Mary Anderson suggests two-thirds Teresa Wright and a third Bonita Granville; the latter impression no doubt derives from her sleuthing around in a jaunty tam, like Nancy Drew. She has the distinction (as does the director, the short-lived Fedor Ozep, as he's credited here) of helping to make the best Nancy Drew mystery ever released. That's faint praise, but praise nonetheless.