Obsession (1949)

John Chard

8.5

Nov 2, 2013

Man's Best Friend. Obsession (AKA: The Hidden Room) is directed by Edward Dmytryk and adapted to screenplay by Alec Coppel from his own book and play. It stars Robert Newton, Phil Brown, Sally Gray and Naunton Wayne. Music is by Nino Rota and cinematography by C.M. Pennington-Richards. Finally having had enough of his wife's affair with a young lover, Dr. Clive Riordan (Newton) plots a devilish scheme of kidnap and murder... The motive that drives the plot of Obsession is simple in the extreme, this is out and out a revenge for infidelity, but the presentation by Dmytryk is superbly…

CinemaSerf

7.0

Jul 9, 2022

This is probably the best straight-part effort from Robert Newton I've ever seen. He is super as the doctor "Riorden" who has had just about enough of his wife's infidelities so decides to rid himself of her latest flame "Bill" (Phil Brown). After surprising the couple at their home, he somehow (and this is very much the weaker part of the film) manages to get the man chained to the wall of a bombed-out basement where he proceeds to hold him captive for weeks, whilst implementing a particularly grizzly, but untraceable, plan to kill and dispose of him. Wife "Storm" (Sally Gray) suspects that s…