The defence The Big-Idea Head
“Form is the argument.”
Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.
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The Locket
Drama · Crime · Thriller · 1946
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Movie details
The Locket
1946 Drama · Crime · Thriller 1h 25m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.3 / 10
Community rating
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Locket?
For the defence
The Big-Idea Head
“You watch with your brain, not your gut.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Witness to Murder
Crime · 1954
A woman fights to convince the police that she witnessed a murder while looking out her bedroom window.
A Kiss Before Dying
Thriller · 1956
A college student tries to get rich quick by wooing two wealthy sisters.
The File on Thelma Jordon
Thriller · 1949
Cleve Marshall, an assistant district attorney, falls for Thelma Jordon, a mysterious woman with a troubled past. When Thelma becomes a suspect in her aunt's murder, Cleve tries to clear her name.
The Hitch-Hiker
Thriller · 1953
Roy and Gilbert's fishing trip takes a terrifying turn when the hitchhiker they pick up turns out to be a sociopath on the run from the law. He's killed before, and he lets the two know that as soon as they're no longer useful, he'll kill again. The two friends plot an escape, but the hitchhiker's peculiar physical affliction, an eye that never closes even when he sleeps, makes it impossible for them to tell when they can make a break for it.
Each Dawn I Die
Crime · 1939
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Footsteps in the Fog
Thriller · 1955
A Victorian-era murder mystery about a parlour maid who discovers that her employer may have killed his first wife.
5 Against the House
Crime · 1955
Former war-time Army buddies now students in college decide to rip off a Reno casino.
While the City Sleeps
Thriller · 1956
Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer".
Ride the Pink Horse
Drama · 1947
A con man tries to blackmail a Mexican gangster.
Time Without Pity
Crime · 1957
Alec Graham is sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend Jennie, with whom he spent a weekend at the English country home of the parents of his friend Brian Stanford. Alec’s father, David Graham, a not-so-successful writer and alcoholic who has neglected his son in the past, flies in from Canada to visit his son on death row. David then goes on a quest to try and clear his son’s name while battling “the bottle.”
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
John Brahm
Written by
Sheridan Gibney · Norma Barzman
Laraine Day
Nancy
Brian Aherne
Dr. Harry Blair
Robert Mitchum
Norman Clyde
Gene Raymond
John Willis
Sharyn Moffett
Nancy - Age 10
Ricardo Cortez
Drew Bonner
Henry Stephenson
Lord Wyndham
Court is in session
Put The Locket on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Technique in search of a pulse.”
Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.