The Limping Man
Posted by martinteller on December 31, 2010
I wanted to own The Scar, so I bought a double-feature DVD that also includes this film. Lloyd Bridges steps off an airplane in London and finds himself entangled in a twisted murder. It suffers from a common noir drawback: a terrific third act, but preceded by a somewhat less interesting build-up. The music is also mixed too loud. But there are some very good photography and a number of thrilling sequences. Most interesting is a rather meta moment where Bridges and Moira Lister (both fine performances, by the way) are able to sneak through a house because all the occupants are too enthralled by a television murder mystery to take notice. From this point until the climax it’s a pretty engaging movie, and I was definitely warming up to it. And then, disaster. I’m going to spoil it, but trust me, I’m doing you a favor. It all ends with the most pointless, unjustified, inexplicable ”it was all a dream!” twist ever. It completely crushed my spirits. I can’t imagine why they thought it was necessary. Given how much of the story takes place outside of Bridges’ viewpoint, it doesn’t even make sense. What a waste of an otherwise reasonably entertaining (though far from exceptional) noir. As a sidenote, Helene Cordet performing a song during a magic act reminded me of a similar scene with Veronica Lake in This Gun for Hire. Rating: 6
