Tuesday, January 15, 2019

A FACE IN THE RAIN 1961 (SINISTER CINEMA)

A very rare and interesting WW2 drama.

Irving Kershner directed this tight little independent film starring Rory Calhoun as Rand, a spy working for the US during the second world war. The mission that he was on has failed.

Rand now finds he has to hide from the Nazi's and he does so in an apartment whose tenant is a lovely woman named Anna and her son. Rand hides in the attic as the Nazi soldiers storm the apartment but find nothing.

It turns out Anna is the mistress to a Nazi named Klaus ( Niall MacGinnis) and this makes hiding and escaping even more difficult for Rand. Anna is being blackmailed by Klaus as the German's have captured her husband and only Klaus stands between life and death for the man.

As things pile up Anna begins to turn on Klaus and Rand makes his very dangerous escape with the help of Anna's son.

The movie is told in flashback as Rand sits on a beach writing a letter to Anna and wondering why he hasn't heard from her since the war ended. The ending of the movie is shocking and very depressing as first, we never know what happens to her son, but we see Anna killed by Klaus in a shocking fade out to the end credits.

The plot is simple, but the story itself is damned good and I can't for the life of me figure out why this film isn't better known. All of the actors do their roles very well and the films moves along at a good clip.

Not really a "war" film, but a damn good drama nonetheless. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

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