- Directed by Mark Robson
- Written by Charles O’Neal, DeWitt Bodeen
- Stars Kim Hunter, Tom Conway, Jean Brooks
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 11 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r84g9Wf2fws
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is well-made, looks sharp in black and white, and is so very tame. And things change toward the end that slow things down even more. There is the horror element of devil worshippers, but they aren’t scary. The entertainment value is limited for a modern viewer.
Synopsis
We open at a private all-girls school. The headmistress calls Mary in and tells her that her sister Jacqueline has gone missing. No one has paid Mary’s tuition for six months. They offer her a job if she wants to stay, but Mary wants to go home and find out what happened to her sister. Her friend warns her that if she leaves, she should never come back—if she does, she’ll never get out. She leaves.
Mrs. Reddy says Jacqueline sold the business to her eight months ago, and she’s done really well with it. She runs into Frances, who didn’t realize Jacqueline was missing; Frances says she saw her at a restaurant just last week. The lady who runs the restaurant says Jacqueline rented a room from them, but she’s never come back.
They open the door and look inside. There’s a chair with a noose above it. There’s no body, but it’s weird. As she talks to the police, Jason Hoag, a poet, is there hitting on her. Mary goes to the Missing Persons department and talks to them about her sister. We see that there are some shady characters who want to keep Jacqueline’s disappearance quiet.
She goes to see Gregory Ward, Jacqueline’s boyfriend, and he wants to do anything to find her. Mr. August, a detective, says he wants to help. He says Jacqueline deeded Mrs. Reddy the business as a gift, she didn’t sell the place. Why? August soon winds up very dead. She sees a couple of men carrying out his dead body later.
Gregory Ward gets Mary a job as a kindergarten teacher. Dr. Judd comes to see Gregory, and he says Jacqueline came to him for money. She can’t come see Gregory because it’s dangerous; she’s in danger of losing her sanity. The doctor offers to take Mary to Jacqueline. When they get back to his place, Mary’s sister has gone.
Jacqueline finally shows up but vanishes almost immediately. Paul Radeaux says he’s a private investigator hired by Gregory Ward to find his wife. When confronted, Gregory admits that he and Jacqueline are married.
Jason the poet invites Mary and Greg to a party at Natalie’s house. Dr. Judd is there. Judd and Jacqueline have been getting suspiciously close recently. Jason finds out that both Mrs. Reddy and Dr. Judd have been reading books on the Palladists, a society of devil worshippers. There’s a related symbol that Mrs. Reddy has begun using as her trademark.
Mary asks Frances a bunch of questions about Mrs. Reddy, and the older woman gets really upset. Reddy then warns Mary to give up looking for her sister. “Your sister is a murderess—she killed Mr. August. You don’t know what dreadful things you might bring about by looking for your sister.”
A group of people get together to discuss the situation. They have a rule of nonviolence, but whoever betrays them must die. Reddy and Frances are there. They’re all sworn to secrecy. Since their order was founded, there have been six betrayals, all of whom were killed to ensure their silence. Jacqueline may be… the seventh victim. Frances swears that Jacqueline didn’t betray anyone by going to Dr. Judd.
Mary goes to say goodbye to Jason; she’s returning to school. Jason figures out that Reddy has intimidated Mary, so he calls Gregory, who’s a lawyer. The three of them debate taking Judd into their confidence but decide to risk it. Judd is creepy, but he finally does take them to see Jacqueline.
Jacqueline admits that she was one of the Palladists; it sounded exciting and fun, but they wouldn’t let her quit. They wanted her to kill herself and kept her prisoner for months. Jason points out that Gregory’s in love with Mary, but he doesn’t want her to know that.
Two strange men come for Jacqueline the next day. The Palladists have captured her in order to execute her. There’s a cup of poison in front of her as the others egg her on. They won’t kill her, but they insist she kill herself with the poison. They get tired of waiting and release her, but they warn that they’ll be after her again soon.
Jacqueline runs into Mimi in the hallway of her building. Mimi says she’s dying, but Jacqueline says she’s always wanted to die. She goes back to her room with the noose. Jason and Judd go to talk to the devil-worshippers, and they mock them as losers. Mary says she’s willing to get together with Gregory, but Jacqueline is his wife…
In the next room, Jacqueline hangs herself.
Commentary
This was Kim Hunter’s first role; she got an “Introducing…” credit.
Dr. Judd, played by Tom Conway, reprises his role from “Cat People (1942),” so this is unofficially in the same universe, but since he dies in the other film, this would be considered a prequel.
The Palladists must be the tamest group of devil worshippers ever put on film. They won’t hurt anyone; they just want to glare at you until you drink poison. This was a pretty good mystery until they actually found Jacqueline, and then it slowed down to become a real slog. And that ending was not what we expected. Still, it was one of the very first films to deal with cults in a serious manner, and the people who were members were civilized, not raving lunatics.
It was awfully tame though; tame past the point of being boring.