The Pretender (film)

Infobox Film
name = The Pretender


image_size =
caption = Theatrical Poster
director = W. Lee Wilder
producer = W. Lee Wilder
writer = Don Martin Doris Miller
narrator =
starring = Albert Dekker Charles Drake
music =
cinematography = John Alton
editing = Asa Boyd Clark John F. Link Sr.
distributor = Republic Pictures
released = August 11, 1947 (U.S.A.)
runtime = 69 minutes
country = United States
language = English
budget =
gross =
website =
amg_id = 1:106537
imdb_id = 0039730

"The Pretender" (1947) is a American crime "film noir" directed by W. Lee Wilder and written by Don Martin, with additional dialogue by Doris Miller. The drama features Albert Dekker, Catherine Craig, Charles Drake, among others. [imdb title|id=0039730|title=The Pretender.]

Plot

The story tells of Kenneth Holden (Dekker) a crooked investment businessman who embezzles a large sum of money from an estate. He hopes to cover his crime by marrying the estate's heiress Claire Worthington (Craig).

However, Worthington is already engaged, so Holden arranges for her fiancee to be killed. The hired hit man's only means of identifying the victim is the picture in the society columns. But Claire Worthington changes her mind and agrees to marry Holden. This means that it's his picture that will appear in the newspaper, thereby condemning him to death.

Desperately trying to contact the hit man, Holden discovers that the man is dead...but his successor is still at large.

Cast

* Albert Dekker as Kenneth Holden
* Catherine Craig as Claire Worthington
* Charles Drake as Dr. Leonard Koster
* Alan Carney as Victor Korrin
* Linda Stirling as Flo Ronson
* Tom Kennedy as Fingers
* Selmer Jackson as Charles Lennox
* Charles Middleton as William the butler
* Ernie Adams as Thomas the butler
* Ben Welden as Mickie
* John Bagni as Hank Gordon
* Stanley Ross as Stranger

Critical reception

Critic Dennis Schwartz liked the film and wrote, "Billy Wilder's lesser known elder brother William Lee Wilder...directs this striking "film noir" about a successful man becoming paranoiac and placing himself in entrapment. In one amazing characteristic "noir" scene, the protagonist is seated on the floor of his unlit, locked room eating crackers and canned food, afraid of being poisoned. This is one of the first movies to score for theremin, an effectively chilling mood music which later became a cliché for many 1950s sci-fi films about aliens. John Alton's dark "film noir" photography sets the proper mood for the melodrama. The "film noir" is absorbing despite stilted dialogue and flat direction." [ [http://www.sover.net/~ozus/pretender.htm Schwartz, Dennis] . Ozus' World Movie Reviews, film review, October 11, 2004. Last accessed: January 10, 2008.]

References

External links

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* [http://www.deliriousfilm.com/hindsight/pretender.html "The Pretender"] at Delirious/Hindsight web site.