Betrayed

Directed by William Castle, Betrayed follows Kim Hunter’s Millie as she begins to suspect that her new husband (Dean Jagger’s Paul Baxter) might be a murderer. Castle, armed with a script by Philip Yordan and Dennis J. Cooper, delivers an erratically-paced yet mostly satisfying film noir that grows more and more compelling as it unfolds, with the movie, at the outset, saddled with a fairly low-rent feel that’s compounded by its lack of wholeheartedly compelling attributes – although it’s clear, even during this stretch, the picture benefits from its stirring performances and smattering of memorable sequences. (Jagger and Hunter are, in terms of the former, quite good here, but it’s Robert Mitchum, cast as Millie’s former flame, that offers up the movie’s most engaging work.) There’s little doubt, then, that Betrayed improves considerably once Millie and Paul go on the run, as Castle does a terrific job of infusing this portion of the proceedings with a series of tense, suspenseful interludes and set-pieces (eg the pair hide out in a black jazz club, etc) – which, when coupled with a fairly thrilling final few minutes (and a climactic, very memorably freakout by Mitchum’s character), cements the film’s place as a decent endeavor that runs an appropriately brisk 67 minutes.

*** out of ****