Burgess Meredith in “Street of Chance“ (1942) - Cornell Woolrich’s novel “The Black Curtain“

One afternoon, Frank Thompson (Burgess Meredith) is knocked unconscious by wreckage falling from a building on Tillary Street in New York City. When he revives, Frank is seriously disoriented although unharmed. Frank soon discovers that his apartment has been rented out for a year and his wife Virginia (Louise Platt) has been living on her own elsewhere. Frank confronts Virginia, who is shocked to see the husband who disappeared without explanation a year earlier. Virginia is thrilled to reunite with Frank, who has no memory of the past year, and he returns to his regular life. Soon, however, he is haunted by the appearance of Joe Marucci (Sheldon Leonard), a threatening looking police detective who follows Frank everywhere, and eventually breaks down the door to the apartment to arrest him. Frank and Virginia escape on the rooftops and he sends her home to her mother until he can clear up the mystery behind his missing year. By returning to Tillary Street, Frank hopes to jog his memory and is startled when Ruth Dillon (Claire Trevor), a beautiful blonde, hurries him into her apartment for his own protection. Ruth identifies Frank as her lover, known as “Danny Nearing“, with whom she worked as a servant at the Diedrich estate in Jericho County until Frank was accused of Harry Diedrich’s murder. Convinced that he is innocent, Frank insists that Ruth accompany him as he searches the Diedrich estate for evidence. Ruth reluctantly accompanies him as he probes around the dark house. There Frank discovers that Grandma Diedrich (Adeline De Walt Reynolds), an elderly, mute invalid, witnessed the murder but was not consulted by the police. Harry’s wife Alma (Frieda Inescort) and her lover, his brother, Bill Diedrich (Jerome Cowan), return from an interrogation by the district attorney and are surprised to find Ruth in the house on her day off. Frank hides in the greenhouse while Ruth cuts the phone wires so that the suspicious Diedrichs cannot call the police. The next night the Diedrichs go out and, unknown to Ruth and Frank, Joe watches their activities. Frank gets a few moments alone with Grandma and communicates with her through a code they have worked out with eyeblinks. Frank is shocked to learn from Grandma that Ruth is the real killer. When pressed, Ruth admits that she unintentionally stabbed Harry when he found her stealing money. Despite Ruth’s pleas, Frank is unable to sympathize with her because she selfishly let him suffer the burden of the murder accusation in order to save herself. Ruth tries to kill Frank, and as they struggle for the gun, a shot is fired into Ruth. Joe comes into the house after the shot is fired and hears Ruth confess to the murder before she dies. A 1942 American Black & White film-noir mystery B-Movie directed by Jack Hively, produced by Sol C. Siegel, screenplay by Garrett Fort, based on Cornell Woolrich’s novel “The Black Curtain“ (1941), cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl, starring Burgess Meredith, Claire Trevor, Sheldon Leonard, Frieda Inescort, Jerome Cowan, Adeline De Walt Reynolds, Arthur Loft, Clancy Cooper, Paul Phillips, Keith Richards, Ann Doran, Cliff Clark, and Edwin Maxwell. Final screen appearance of Louise Platt. Adeline De Walt Reynolds began her career at the age of 78, in 1941. She graduated from college at the age of 64. She lived to 99. Paramount’s B-picture unit offered a higher degree of professionalism than most, reflected by the fine level of performance and technically superior achievement here. The man with amnesia is named Frank Townsend in the original story, and the finale is changed here from that of the original story. This has no relation to the Paramount’s “Street of Chance“ (1930) starring William Powell. Since the word “sex“ was forbidden to say by the Hays Code, someone had the idea of “male or female sex“ which is something that children learn in grammar school. It was later dramatized three times on the CBS Radio series Suspense, and adapted for television: The Alfred Hitchcock Hour – The Black Curtain, directed by Sydney Pollack, broadcast on November 15, 1962. Woolrich often published under different pseudonyms. ‘William Irish’ was the byline in Dime Detective Magazine (February 1942) on his short story “It Had to Be Murder“, source of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” (1954). François Truffaut filmed tow of his works. An early entry in the film-noir canon that establishes a number of conventions that helped define noir. This whodunnit hits all the buttons for film-noir, but qualifies mainly for being based on a work by that master of paranoia and cruel fate, prolific writer Cornell Woolrich. This early straightforward film-noir has a couple of good twists, is at times eerie and suspenseful, with many disturbing moments that keep things interesting, including an over-the-transom tracking shot to end the picture that is practically Antonioni-esque. Enjoy it for its early, pure Noir. Worth seeking out by film-noir completists.