Obsession (1949 film)

Obsession
Theatrical release poster (USA)
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Screenplay by Alec Coppel
Based on A Man About a Dog
by Alec Coppel
Produced by
Starring Robert Newton
Cinematography C. M. Pennington-Richards
Edited by Lito Carruthers
Music by Nino Rota
Production
company
Independent Sovereign Films
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release date
  • 3 August 1949
Running time
 96 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Obsession, released in the United States as The Hidden Room, is a 1949 British crime film directed by Edward Dmytryk. It is based on the 1947 novel A Man About a Dog by Alec Coppel, who also wrote the screenplay for the film. Obsession was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

Clive Riordan, a wealthy London psychiatrist, learns that his wife Storm is romantically involved with Bill Kronin, an American. He resolves to exact revenge on both by committing the perfect murder of Kronin.

After kidnapping Kronin at gunpoint, Riordan keeps him prisoner for months in a hidden room while authorities mount a search for him. Riordan reveals to Kronin that he plans to kill him and dissolve his corpse in an acid bath. Riordan's plot appears to be succeeding until Superintendent Finsbury from Scotland Yard visits the doctor's office, enquiring about the case and hinting that he knows what Riordan is doing, as he has received information from an anonymous letter. A three-way battle of wits ensues. Finsbury tries to solve the case with policework and psychological tactics, claiming that as a police officer, he has the advantage over murderers, who are nearly always amateurs and make mistakes. Kronin desperately seeks ways to save himself.

Cast

Background

Alec Coppel wrote the story as a play when he was living in Sydney during World War II. He adapted it into a novel while travelling to London. Coppel titled the play and the novel A Man About a Dog, but in the United States, the novel was titled Over the Line.

The play opened in London in April 1946 and the novel was published in 1948, although many critics commented that the novel felt similar to a play. Another production of the play was staged in London in May 1949.

Production

Film rights were acquired by the British producer Noel Madison. He also bought the rights to two other thrillers, Four Hours to Kill by Norman Krasna and The Last Mile by John Wexley.

The film's director Edward Dmytryk, had recently left Hollywood following his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He travelled to England in mid-1948 and was granted a work permit by the Ministry of Labour under the foreign directors' quota agreement between producers and the film industry's trade unions. He signed a contract to direct the film with Nat Bronstein of Independent Sovereign Films on 1 October 1948.

Filming took place near Grosvenor House and Coppel's home, which was converted into a temporary dressing room.

Dmytryck went over the script with Coppel at a hotel at Lake Annecy. He later said Bronstein wanted a part in the film for his opera singing girlfriend, Marushka, and the producer was upse when one could not be found.

Dmytryck says Robert Newton had to place a £20,000 bond guaranteeing his sobriety during production which went for 30 days. The director says Newton only started drinking on the last day of filming.

The plot involves disposing a body by dissolving it in acid. Because this appeared to have similarities to the case of the murderer John Haigh, the British Board of Film Censors initially refused to grant the film a certificate and its release was delayed.

Reception

Variety wrote that that the film is slow-paced at first but becomes suspenseful. The New York Times called it "a first-rate study in suspense and abnormal psychology."

In 1993, Kendal Patterson of the Los Angeles Times described the film as an early predecessor of Fatal Attraction.