Tonight's Movie: The Prowler (1951) at the Noir City Film Festival

After watching THE ARGYLE SECRETS (1948) at the opening night of the 2022 Noir City Film Festival, I returned the next afternoon for a matinee of THE PROWLER (1951).

Like the other three films I saw at this year's Noir City festival, THE PROWLER was a first-time watch for me.

It's an engrossing -- if rather creepy -- look at a troubled cop and his illicit affair with a married woman, which has devastating repercussions.

Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) spends her evenings alone in a large suburban Los Angeles home while her husband John (Sherry Hall) works as a late-night radio announcer. (An interesting note: John's radio voice is actually that of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.)

One evening Susan spots a prowler outsider her bathroom window and a pair of cops (Van Heflin and John Maxwell) arrive to check things out.

Officer Webb Garwood (Heflin) is a dissatisfied man carrying a great deal of anger, and he immediately covets both Susan -- who happens to be from his hometown -- and her expensive home.

Webb begins visiting Susan, ostensibly just to check up on her safety, but before long the lonely housewife and grasping cop are having an affair while her husband's at work. Eventually the romance causes problems between Susan and John and she decides to end the affair with Webb.

Webb, however, has become completely untethered from both sanity and morality; he wants John's wife and his money and works out a way to "innocently" kill John.

Webb and Susan hide their previous relationship during the inquest, but Susan blames Webb for her husband's death and initially refuses to see him again. Eventually Webb woos her back...then a pregnancy with an awkward due date changes everything...

THE PROWLER is an intense film featuring an extremely unsavory lead character, but despite -- or because of -- that it does an excellent job interesting the viewer in what awful thing will happen next over the course of its 92 minutes.

Heflin and director Joseph Losey tip viewers off to the creep factor early, with moments such as a startling shot of Webb's face showing up in the bathroom window where the prowler had stood. Later we see him snooping through a desk when Susan is in the other room. Bit by bit we realize he's not simply an unsavory character, he's downright unhinged.

Susan, meanwhile, is mostly lonely; she married an older man who could provide for her, but they haven't had the family she'd dreamed of, and her evenings are empty. It's extremely effective that John is almost unseen but very much heard throughout the film, culminating in an unsettling unexpected use of his voice late in the film.

Heflin and Keyes are both excellent, and I particularly admired Heflin's fearlessness in playing a man who's ultimately revealed as an out-and-out creep. It's a richly detailed performance, communicating character as much in physical bits of business as with words. Keyes never disappoints, and this film demonstrates she deserved even more acclaim than she received in the course of her career.

The script was written by Hugo Butler and the uncredited Dalton Trumbo, based on a story by Robert Thoeren and Hans Wilhelm. The way the writers use a pregnancy as a key plot device is quite unusual for the era; I won't say anything more than I already have so as not to be too spoilerish, but I was fascinated, and it definitely gives the film an interesting angle.

The last section of the film, shot by Arthur C. Mller at the Calico Ghost Town, is a real nail-biter, with great visuals and story tension.

Among the supporting cast, I loved Katherine Warren as Grace Crocker, the wife of Webb's partner; the matter-of-fact, game-for-anything way she shares interests with her husband was quite enjoyable. As a couple with a healthy, functional relationship who enjoy life despite their middle-class budget, the Crockers provide an interesting contrast to Webb and Susan's destructive relationship, showing what's possible when good choices are made.

The supporting cast includes Emerson Tracy, Madge Blake, Herbert Anderson, Robert Osterloh, and Wheaton Chambers.

THE PROWLER is available on DVD and Blu-ray from VCI.

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