pensman The estates of Reginald Rose and Hugh Wheeler should be looking at Gillian Flynn's novel and ask how much of this this film influenced her novel. We have a neurotic somewhat psychotic wife, Carolyn Jones here channeling Bette Davis, upset and angry with her husband because he refuses to return to New York. She makes a scene at a party implying her husband is a wife beater. Once the stage is set incidents make it appear her husband killed her. The big difference is the band of local children who believe John, Alan Ladd, is innocent and join forces to protect him and help prove he is innocent and if his wife is dead then there must be another killer. And yes, in this film she really was killed. What I find most amusing about the film is its being set in a mythical town in CT that seems a lot like Westport in the 1950's except for the townspeople who have a lynch mentality and don't want to hear the facts that would clear John. But who really did it--yes she was was really killed--her lover or the local sheriff or was it someone else. The ending is a bit of a surprise but all ends well; almost too well.

blanche-2 Like a lot of classic film stars, Alan Ladd's career ended on a low rather than a high note, and one of his last films, 1959's Man in the Net, is a good example of this. It was also one of the last films for director Michael Curtiz who directed such classics as "Casablanca." It's a poor effort from such an accomplished man.Ladd plays an artist who has left the pressure of NYC and his full time job in order to paint. He spends most of his time in the woods, painting, while a group of local kids play nearby and talk with him. His major problem isn't the brushes and colors, though, it's his wife (Carolyn Jones), an alcoholic who wants to return to the social atmosphere that helped her drinking along in the first place. Here in the boondocks, she's hooked up with the ritzy set, to Ladd's displeasure.When he returns from a business trip to New York City, his wife is missing, there is blood on his painting clothes, his paintings have been destroyed, and everybody thinks he's responsible. With the help of the children he has befriended, he eludes the police and is able to get the proof he needs to exonerate himself.With a tighter script and someone other than Ladd, this might have been a decent movie. The kids are adorable, and that angle of the script plays out nicely. Ladd, unfortunately, sleepwalks through the role and at times, actually looks like a blind man. I tried to figure out why, and I think it's just because he's literally staring into space instead of focusing on something. There was never anything spectacular about Ladd's acting - what he had was a presence, a toughness, and good looks. These are all gone, and in their place is a puffy, heavy-lidded, slow man.In contrast, the striking Carolyn Jones is full of energy in her role. With her signature short haircut and Bette Davis eyes, Jones was an edgy actress who left us too soon. She was very good at playing neurotic party girls and straying wives, though she's remembered today as Morticia on "The Addams Family" TV show.All in all, "The Man in the Net" plays like a television drama, with the suburbanites going after Ladd like they all live in the wild west. Someone commented that today he would be suspicious for hanging out with children, and that aspect dates the film as well. It's a shame, because the nicest aspect of the movie was the way the kids rallied around him and helped him.If you loved Ladd in "This Gun for Hire," "The Glass Key," "The Blue Dahlia," and "Shane," skip this. You don't need to see a fallen star.

whpratt1 Alan Ladd, (John Hamilton) plays the role of an artist who decides to leave New York and the rat race mainly because his wife likes to drink and is getting out of control where she has to see a doctor for help. Carolyn Jones, (Linda Hamilton) plays John's wife and lives in a very quiet town in New England where John paints pictures of children all day and never seems to sell a picture. One day John receives a letter offering him a job in New York City with an Art Firm for $30,000 dollars but refuses to take this position because of his wife's chemical dependency. Linda goes into a rage and starts drinking and goes completely out of control. In real life, Alan Ladd is really doing all the boozing and you can see it in the close up's of his face and eyes are puffy. The children in this picture take complete control over the entire film and gave great supporting roles in trying to hid and help John Hamilton from the police.

bkoganbing Alan Ladd gives up the city life and rat race for himself and also for dipsomaniac and nymphomaniac wife Carolyn Jones. They move out to quiet and peaceful Connecticut. Where Ladd paints out in the woods with his only true friends the town children. Jones on the other hand gets an affair going with one of the town movers and shakers.Jones winds up very dead when Ladd makes an overnight trip to New York. Local cop Charles McGraw thinks Ladd did it as does most of the town, his only friends are the children and Diane Brewster, one of the suburban wives. Alfred Hitchcock might have made the rest of this film seem plausible. In fact Man in the Net plays like an expanded version of one of his half hour TV stories. There are some plot similarities to The Blue Dahlia made back during Ladd's Paramount hey day. In that one he's also a husband on the run after his wife has been killed. Back then though Ladd put a lot of passion into his role of John Morrison, returning war veteran. As John Hamilton though he seems just tired and bored.One thing that doesn't ring true is the lynch law mentality that takes over this suburban town. That plays more like a western than a modern story. Again, maybe Alfred Hitchcock could have made it more believable.It's kind of cute and fun to see the kids outsmart the grownups including the local law for a good deal of the film. But it only goes so far for Man in the Net.