LOVE FROM A STRANGER is a typical version of the popular 'Bluebeard' type tale and indeed Bluebeard himself, the famous wife killer, is referenced at one point. It bears the usual stylistic similarities to the likes of Hitchcock's REBECCA although it has more of a B-movie look and feel than that film. The film was made as a British-American co-production and is set largely in the UK.
Sylvia Sidney stars as an heiress who breaks off her long-term engagement with the nice but dull John Howard to hook up with the exotic John Hodiak. The problem with this set-up is that she has zero sympathy for the viewer so it's hard to get worked up about her subsequent plight. The couple move to the English coast where Sidney begins to suspect that her new husband's motives might not be all they're cracked up to be.
After a somewhat muddled opening, there's some mild atmosphere building here and the usual fun with weather machines supplying storms and the like. Hodiak is a fan of his basement which leads to some fun macabre moments which reminded me of THE 'BURBS, of all things. The film only really gets going in the last twenty minutes or so, and before that the first hour is a little slow. But the show-stopping climax is definitely worth the wait.
Sylvia Sidney stars as an heiress who breaks off her long-term engagement with the nice but dull John Howard to hook up with the exotic John Hodiak. The problem with this set-up is that she has zero sympathy for the viewer so it's hard to get worked up about her subsequent plight. The couple move to the English coast where Sidney begins to suspect that her new husband's motives might not be all they're cracked up to be.
After a somewhat muddled opening, there's some mild atmosphere building here and the usual fun with weather machines supplying storms and the like. Hodiak is a fan of his basement which leads to some fun macabre moments which reminded me of THE 'BURBS, of all things. The film only really gets going in the last twenty minutes or so, and before that the first hour is a little slow. But the show-stopping climax is definitely worth the wait.