bkoganbing Robert Taylor in High Wall finds himself accused of wife Dorothy Patrick's murder. A head injury resulting from service as a pilot in the China-Burma-India Theater has rendered him susceptible to blackouts. When Patrick is strangled Taylor is a prime suspect, especially after he's caught racing from the crime scene.It's a legal conundrum he's in. That head injury may just make him temporarily insane and Taylor's committed to a mental institution. There he meets psychiatrist Audrey Totter who's committed to rehabilitating him and loving him, not necessarily in that order in a given time in the film.Though the story tends to go into the melodramatic the cast, especially Taylor give fine performances. I'm sure Taylor's background in the Navy during World War II helped him appreciate the plight of returning veterans like himself. Look also for great performances by Herbert Marshall as Patrick's boss and Vince Barnett as a blackmailing janitor with arthritis.High Wall was Taylor's second film upon returning to MGM and it marked a step up from his first film Undercurrent. It still holds up well today.

blanche-2 Robert Taylor is Steven Kenet, accused of killing his unfaithful wife in "High Wall," a 1947 film noir also starring Audrey Totter and Herbert Marshall. In our first glimpse of Steve, he's in a car with a dead woman careening down the road to get rid of her. The problem is, due to a brain injury suffered during the war, he can't remember what happened. He is institutionalized for psychiatric evaluation to see if he can stand trial as a sane person. Audrey Totter is Ann, the psychiatrist who takes in Steve's small son as well as works with her patient to try and uncover the truth. Herbert Marshall plays his dead wife's boss.After World War II, Hollywood began to explore mental and emotional disorders and the use of psychiatry to unlock the traumas of the mind. "Possessed," "Spellbound," and "The Snake Pit" are just a few of the dozens of films employing the use of psychiatry, mental hospitals, and/or psychotropic drugs. In "High Wall," the psychiatry seems to be more of a plot device than something that is actually used to help the patient. It's there to provide flashbacks. Meanwhile, the Taylor character, once he has surgery, has a mind of his own and is constantly slipping out or in the psychiatrist's office window, hiding in her car, and visiting the scene of the crime. The biggest problem is that the character of the murder victim is never developed, and the reasons for her behavior are never made clear. Nevertheless, the film manages to hold one's interest, has a great atmosphere and a couple of really shocking moments. There are also some very funny bits throughout, including a scene where Steve meets the public defender.This is one of Robert Taylor's best performances. After "Johnny Eager," one of Hollywood's biggest heartthrobs began to play more complex roles and more bad guys. It was a good move; he played them very well. He doesn't get much support from Audrey Totter, who turns in a dull, somewhat cold performance in an attempt to be a professional woman. She doesn't give the role a lot of shading. Herbert Marshall seems somewhat miscast and is too lethargic for a role that requires some emotional range.Very watchable for handsome Taylor's excellent performance.

mamalv The High Wall is so unique that it is hard to fathom why the critics of the era never gave it just reviews. Robert Taylor is harried and tense, and is not sure himself if he is guilty of murder. The cops think he is the Doctors think he is, but he is just not sure. Audrey Totter, plays Dr. Lorrison, the shrink in charge of his case, and she thinks he is re- pressing the fact that he did kill his wife, who he found in the apartment of her boss, ready to have a liaison with him. Had'nt he started to strangle her, when he blacked out? An old war injury he has shows up with blackouts, and headaches. Had'nt he put off the operation that would help him so he could use the injury as an excuse to kill her? Little by little we see Dr. Lorrison becoming confused, as she is drawn to Kenet, thinking maybe he is innocent. After a visit from the janitor at the bosses apartment shows up, to tell Kenet he was not alone in the flat, he decides he must have truth serum to see what he can remember. The doctor still thinks he might have done it after the session is over. Kenet fakes being asleep, and escapes, hiding in her car. He confronts her and makes her come with him to the bosses apartment. He remembers, after he tears up the room, making it look like it did that awful night. He returns to the hospital and the doctor does not tell that he was gone. When the boss, Herbert Marshall returns home, he is confronted by the same murder scene that he had cleaned up. He becomes disraught and thinks he is going to run, but instead he kills the janitor, and then confronts Kenet at the asylum, telling him he killed both the janitor and Helen. Kenet jumps him and they isolate him thinking he is really crazy now. He attacks Dr. Lorrison, grabs her car, and starts out after Marshall. The Doctor is now convinced that he is innocent, and follows him to the streets near Marshall's apartment. The scene is great noir, with their figures almost obscured by the rain, and the blackened streets. You really have to pay attention to see them and that is the greatest part of film noir. Of course they drug Marshall and he confesses leaving the Doctor and Kenet to move on and help the little son he loves so much. Robert Taylor was always an underrated actor, and this is the part that proves it. Too bad the critics never gave him his due, but the public sure did, they loved him in any role, and this is one of his best.

Neil Doyle THE HIGH WALL gives Robert Taylor a chance to demonstrate that he was a very capable actor and much more than just a pretty face. Audrey Totter, as a psychiatrist who decides to help him prove he did not kill his wife, makes a strong impression opposite him. And Herbert Marshall is quietly effective as a mysterious man who knows the truth.All of it is directed in brisk film noir fashion by Curtis Bernhardt with the accent on dark shadows and rainy streets to give it the proper noir atmosphere. Rather than tell the plot, I'll just say that the story moves swiftly and keeps the viewer absorbed from start to finish. It's a well-paced thriller that makes use of psychiatric trends that may date the film today--but it's all done with such authority that whatever script contrivances are present don't really matter. It's intense and absorbing all the way in true film noir style. Taylor has seldom been more convincing as the distraught bomber pilot trying to find out whether he killed his wife or not.