Smashing!!


So well done...suspenseful...mysterious..& ultimately bleak.
The only part that seems at all far fetched is the 'crossed line' conversation overheard at the start of the film...but..I can handle such a "MacGuffin"..if there's not a false step the rest of the way. And there isn't. Such fun.
The last 5 minutes are pure movie magic.

"All you need is a gorilla and a dream"

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[deleted]

It's addressed in another thread, but the crossed telephone line was very possible in the thirties and forties, even as late as the 1980's according to that thread. The MacGuffin would be that the conversation involves the listener's own planned murder, but that's what makes storytelling.

BTW, Stanwyck's character becomes involved even before she dreams that it's her own murder being planned.

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And, of course, back in the day, there were 'party lines' that were shared with more than one household.

‘Six inches is perfectly adequate; more is vulgar!' (Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Re: An open window).

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