Strangers in the Night

Anthony Mann's fifth directorial work is a crisp B-picture and at the same time the only really great film role for Helene Thimig, who had recently become a widow in real life: terrifying and tragic at the same time, she - as the mistress of a remote house on the cliffs, who has difficulties with age, love and especially with the truth - lures a young sergeant into a disastrous web of delusions and fantasies. Screenwriter Philip MacDonald has already demonstrated his penchant for the dark sides of the human (or: female) psyche in Alfred Hitchcock's REBECCA and Anthony Mann proves to be the ideal accomplice when it comes to illuminating them in an elegantly effective way. (Florian Widegger)

With an introduction by Florian Widegger