The Prowler

In Los Angeles a woman calls the police to say she saw someone at her window. One of the patrolmen who answers, Webb Garwood, realises he knows her and starts coming back. She is unhappy with her husband, who works nights on the radio. What Webb wants is less the woman than the life she has: the house, the money, the order. One night another call comes in and Webb shoots the husband. He says it was an accident and the inquest believes him. The film does not hide the killing; what interests it is everything after. Webb never stops seeing himself as justified, and the story lays out his reasoning step by step. This is not the usual noir defeat at the hands of fate; here the man chooses every step himself and ends up alone in the desert. Joseph Losey directed. Van Heflin plays Webb and Evelyn Keyes the woman. The script carries the mark of the blacklist. Dalton Trumbo wrote it but his name is not on the film; his friend Hugo Butler's name was used as a front, and Butler was blacklisted too. Only a few people on the production knew. Losey was blacklisted himself soon after this and left America. Who it is for: anyone who likes film noir and stories about the dark face of American middle-class ambition. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a sympathetic lead. Webb is repellent throughout, and the tone shifts abruptly once the last section moves to the desert.