The Hidden Eye (1945)

Too much of everything

Fresh and Exciting

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Courtsey of MGM's prolific/proficient second feature output unit, comes this sequel to Fred Zinnemann's debut feature 'Eyes In The Night', about a visually-impaired sleuth. This time around, the technical team is unfortunately less resourceful than their protagonist who is busy, with the aid of his faithful guide dog, trying to clear an innocent man of murder.The replacement of B-frisson chills with chuckles is a miscalculation on this outing, and stereotype B-movie characterisations abound from vulnerable love interest to seedy villains. The story's gritty, 'urban' settings, replete with dark alleyways and disused warehouses, are never exploited to the full effect of their classic noir trappings.The proceedings are all lighthearted enough if a little too genial. However, although there is some inevitable sentiment, the film is surprisingly unpatronising in its treatment of our blind hero. All in all it's a disappointing sequel, but not an hour-and-a-bit wasted.

Edward Arnold returns to the role of Captain Duncan Maclain, a former police detective forced to retire when he became blind, however he moved from being a public cop into being a private detective. Maclain previously appeared in the film Eyes in the Night, a wartime mystery where he battled Axis spies. Its a super thriller that should have launched a series, instead of a single sequel (this film) three years later. Here Maclain is hired by a young woman to find out who is killing off her family. The murders appear to be timed with the appearance of a beau in the woman's life. The murders also seem to be linked to what happened years before in Sumatra. The mystery is less then mysterious since the choice of real suspects number two, and odds are you'll choose the right one.(lets face it even the movie gives up with any notion of mystery half way in).A good little film that works purely on the basis of the performances, and in the case of this film its enough. Actually its more than enough with Arnold's Maclain being absolutely a joy to behold. He may be blind but its clear he's light years ahead of everyone around him. I still can't believe that MGM never went further with the series. You really should see this if you like mystery thrillers. Not quite as good as the earlier film, but its still a damn fine mystery.

(There are Spoilers) No where as good as the previous "Blind Detective" feature "Eyes in the Night" the movie "The Hidden Eye" still holds your interest up until the final moments even though the mysterious killer is revealed almost half-way through the film.After being discharged from the US Army Barry Grifford, Paul Langton, had met and fell in love with the pretty heiress to the Hampton tin fortune Jane Hampton, Frances Rafferty. The two lovebirds Barry & Jane eagerly wanting to get hitched have their wedding plans kept on hold by Jane's dad Mr. Arthur Hampton, Raymond Laugay, not wanting his daughter to get married so soon after two members of the family were founded murdered.It later turns out that Uncle Rodney Hampton, Clyde Fillmore, who eventually was to give his consent to Jane & Barrys wedding plans, with his brother Mr. Hamptons blessings, in found murdered in his office as both Jane and Barry came to visit him.Finding a mysterious note laced with his strange Jasmin perfume as well as the Areng Tree mentioned on it all clues to Uncle Rodney's murder leads to Barry. Barry was on the scene of Rodney Hampton's murder and later he was also at the scene of Mr. Hamptons murder which makes him a prime suspect. There's also the fact that the Areng Tree is native to the island of Sumatra the place where Mr. Hampton made his fortune some thirty years ago and his partner Barry father Mr. Grifford ended up losing his shirt! Are these murders the work of Barry Grifford in revenge of what he feels that old man Hampton did to his dad in swindling him of of his share of the prosperous Sumatra Hampton tin mine?Getting family friend and blind sleuth Capt. Duncan "Mac" MacLaine, Edward Arnold, on the case Jane hopes he'll get to the bottom of these murders and exonerate Barry, who has yet to be charged, of committing them. "Mac" together with his partner Marty Corbatt, William "Bill" Phillips, and faithful seeing eye dog Friday sniff out the truth behind Mr. Hampton's and Uncle Rodney's murder in the fact that the mysterious perfume was purposely planted at the murder scene to implicate poor and innocent Barry Grifford.The killer using his henchmen lead by Ferris, Morris Arkrum, realized that "Mac" has got the drop on him and the real reason for the Hampton murders. The killer happens to be in charges of the Hampton tin mine fortune and want's, with all the Hampton's out of the way, to get total control of it. The killer is also positioning Barry into a corner in that he'll murder his sweetheart Jane to exact revenge of what her dad, the late Mr. Hampton, did to his dad in bankrupting him.As "Mac" gets closer to the truth the Killer has his seeing-eye dog Friday dog-napped and held hostage in an effort to get "Mac" off his back. This all backfires with Friday together with his master "Mac", who was also later kidnapped, turning the tables on the Killer and his hoods and then working against the clock in preventing Barry from being shot by the cops as he enters the Hampton Mansion. Barry was hoodwinked by Ferris & Co, impersonating cops, into thinking that he's coming to his sweetheart Janes rescue only to have him be gunned down by the awaiting police. The cops, the real ones, were tipped off by the killer that Barry is going to the mansion to murder Jane and and then plant evidence, fake of course, to implicate him in her murder.The brave and courageous Friday who saved "Mac" earlier by attacking and tearing apart two of his and "Mac" captors at the killers hideout was rendered useless by being locked in a cab, that brought them to the Hampton Masion, by the suddenly metalized killer. "Mac" taking the killer on hand to hand made up for his loss of sight, he was blinded in WWI, by his expertise in both Oriental martial arts of Ju Jutsu and Sumo Wrestling. "Mac" ended up putting him to sleep without the help of Friday who if freed would have done a much better, or worse, job on him which the killer in not being torn to ribbons should be very very thankful for.

I had hopes for this one, as it was written by a real mystery writer -- George Harmon Coxe, and featured Edward Arnold, who is incapable of a bad performance.Problem is -- the story really isn't a mystery, as the killer is revealed about halfway through the film. And, while Arnold does the best he can with so-so material, the romantic leads and the comic "relief" is dreadful. One ultimately does not care whether the male lead did or did not execute the strange series of killings featured in the movie, as he is such a cold fish. As a matter of fact, when the police takes him down to the station "to clear up one or two things", one kind of hopes that they broke out the rubber hoses.Arnold plays a blind detective, and the film is full of the uncanny sensitivity blind detectives always have in fiction. While most of this is hooey, Arnold does convey a sort of odd remoteness that absolutely appropriate for his character. More improbably, Arnold -- who creditably played Nero Wolfe ten years earlier -- is shown as an expert wrestler.Seriously, this one is for Edward Arnold freaks only. And if one is hungry for Arnold performances, one can get them in many, many better movies.