Beware, My Lovely

1918, a small American town. Helen Gordon is a widow; her husband died in the war and she lives alone in a large house. She hires a handyman for the pre-Christmas cleaning: Howard Wilton. He is quiet, hard-working, obliging. Then something slips. Howard forgets where he is, confuses who he is, and then locks the doors. Helen is shut inside her own house. There is nobody outside, no telephone, and the man in front of her does not himself know what he will do a minute from now. Harry Horner directs; seventy-seven minutes, with Ida Lupino as Helen and Robert Ryan as Howard. It was made by the independent company Lupino was a partner in. Nearly all of it takes place in one house, and the threat comes from inside the man's own head.