Hidden Fear (1957)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Very satisfying American Noir shot in Denmark in the late 1950s. Many of the exteriors were clearly shot on location and make very good, atmospheric use of the city. The interior set pieces, however, are where the film really separates itself from the standard "Noir look". Noir had always been influenced, one might even say descended from, German Expressionism, but the set pieces and lighting here are almost Caligari like, the characters moving through dark rooms like wraiths. The film culminates with a spectacular chase scene that makes extensive and impressive use of helicopter shots, perhaps the most ambitious use of such angles since Nick Ray's innovative "They Live by Night", released only a few short years before this film. This movie strikes me as almost unwittingly feminist. The much slapped around and manipulated female characters might be "bad women", but unlike true femme fatales they're not pulling any strings. These are active, if not entirely willing, participants in an amoral, patriarchal game.

John Payne plays a rough and tough American detective in Andre de Toth's atmospheric thriller "Hidden Fear" who struggles to clear his sister of murder in Denmark with the help of the Danish authorities. No matter what you think about this gritty crime melodrama about counterfeiters, this black & white epic doesn't wear out its welcome with its trim 80-minute length. Moreover, de Toth keeps things going at such a breakneck pace that you wonder if they weren't consistently several days behind schedule. Speaking about its concise running time, "Hidden Fear" moves along at such a rapid clip that you may have trouble keeping up with it. Despite the scenic Copenhagen locales, this movie makes a point of showing off a Mercedes sedan that features wing-tip doors as well as actress Ann Neyland's abundant cleavage. Alexander Knox is on hand as the mastermind behind the counterfeiting scheme and he has no qualms about double-crossing his own partners if it will enable him to escape from the clutches of justice. Payne wears the same suit and tie through and swaps blows with a variety of Danes. Unfortunately, all the characters are strictly one-dimensional. Everything about this modest melodrama reeks of professionalism, but the whole package lacks the ingenuity of Payne's best crime thrillers "The Crooked Way" and "Kansas City Confidential."

Before deciding that television was a good career move and leaving feature films, John Payne did this last one Hidden Fear for which he got a trip to Copenhagen. I've heard of worse reasons for a movie and worse films that came from them. Hidden Fear will never be ranked in his top 10 nor of the top ten of Andre DeToth the director.Payne plays a homicide cop who's in Copenhagen because his sister Natalie Norwick's got herself in a nice jackpot with the Danish police. She's accused of murdering her boyfriend who was a dancer/musician and something of a lowlife. Payne starts running his own investigation and it turns out that the boyfriend was trying to horn in on a counterfeiting scheme that Alexander Knox and Conrad Nagel are running.Truth be told Payne's truculent attitude probably cut a few corners, but the Danish cops probably were well on the way toward learning the truth. For that reason I can't really rate this noir film very high. In fact it could have gotten another notch in the ratings had we some color cinematography of Copenhagen and the Danish countryside.These kind of films were disappearing and Payne probably made a right choice when he left feature films.

I haver never seen an American film noir shot in Danemark before. That's really the first time.The story itself offers no great surprises. Payne plays an American cop who tries to clear his sister of a murder charge. He has to fight against counterfeiters. I must admit that we have already seen this before, a thousand times. Especially Payne who is as hard boiled as ever.But it's a tough thriller, no boring at all with, at the end, a good chase through the country side around Copenhagen.A rare Andre de Toth movie that deserves to be discovered.