"Her Married Lover" (a.k.a., "A Clean Kill") is a well-acted classic of neo-noir. The situation was dynamically conceived around the relationship of a mystery writer and his student admirer. Apparently, they first met during a robbery at a convenience store. The film's tagline of "we're invisible" were the reassuring words given to Katherine "Katie" Griffin by the dashing writer Richard Mannhart. Or, were the words really reassuring or even spoken by Richard at all? That is the conundrum of this perplexing mystery.
A weakness of the film was in the repetitive nature of the flashback scenes in which we see Richard promising over and over to divorce his wife Laura so that he can marry Katie. The film turned into a slow burner with almost the same conceit repeated again and again. In the meantime, Richard's wife Laura dies when the brakes on her car failed and she rode off a cliff. The question is: who tampered with to brakes to murder Laura Mannhart?
A crucial scene is where Katie shows off her beautiful diamond engagement ring to her bestie Brenda Slagel. The crusty police detective Lansing concludes Brenda could not corroborate Katie's story because she never met Richard personally; she only learned about him anecdotally from Katie. It now boils down to the question of who dunnit? Was it Richard? Or, was it Katie?
The major turning point in the film comes when Katie dons her wedding dress, expecting her beau to show up and take her to the altar. Katie and the maid of honoro Brenda wait and wait, but Richard never shows. It was at that moment that the viewer begins to wonder whether Katie is truly Richard's muse, or if their relationship is a twisted figment of her imagination.
The final scene in police headquarters helped to redeem the slow paced film with a compelling bit of photographic evidence that Katie reveals to Detective Lansing. For the seasoned detective, this evidence is the clincher, and it is especially relevant because of Katie's expertise as a film editor. It was the closing moments of the film that truly made "Her Married Lover" a classic!
A weakness of the film was in the repetitive nature of the flashback scenes in which we see Richard promising over and over to divorce his wife Laura so that he can marry Katie. The film turned into a slow burner with almost the same conceit repeated again and again. In the meantime, Richard's wife Laura dies when the brakes on her car failed and she rode off a cliff. The question is: who tampered with to brakes to murder Laura Mannhart?
A crucial scene is where Katie shows off her beautiful diamond engagement ring to her bestie Brenda Slagel. The crusty police detective Lansing concludes Brenda could not corroborate Katie's story because she never met Richard personally; she only learned about him anecdotally from Katie. It now boils down to the question of who dunnit? Was it Richard? Or, was it Katie?
The major turning point in the film comes when Katie dons her wedding dress, expecting her beau to show up and take her to the altar. Katie and the maid of honoro Brenda wait and wait, but Richard never shows. It was at that moment that the viewer begins to wonder whether Katie is truly Richard's muse, or if their relationship is a twisted figment of her imagination.
The final scene in police headquarters helped to redeem the slow paced film with a compelling bit of photographic evidence that Katie reveals to Detective Lansing. For the seasoned detective, this evidence is the clincher, and it is especially relevant because of Katie's expertise as a film editor. It was the closing moments of the film that truly made "Her Married Lover" a classic!