孽海奇逢

极棒的、未受到充分重视的film noir；绝对诡异迷离的经历；茫茫大海的航船上，孤离封闭与半开放的场景空间；高妙的紧张氛围，奇特的声音设计，有点反noir精神的不一样的明亮打光；惊喜连连！ 　　Falling somewhere in the middle distance between Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes and Jodie Foster's Flightplan, the 1953 thriller Dangerous Crossing is another tale of a perilous journey where someone disappears into thin air and only one person even remembers him existing. 　　Jeanne Crain is Ruth Bowman, formerly Stanton, a newlywed who boards an ocean liner with hubbie John (Carl Betz) to honeymoon abroad. Once the ship has sailed, however, John is nowhere to be found, and no one but Ruth remembers seeing him. Adding further frustration is the fact that though Ruth insists they checked into a larger room as a couple, the ship has her booked in a different room as a single passenger, and under her maiden name to boot. The ship's doctor, Paul Manning (Michael Rennie), takes Ruth under his care, but he becomes too confused by his attraction to her to know for sure if she's telling the truth or merely delusional. Late-night phone calls from John warning Ruth of trouble are no help, nor is the fact that the nuptials were so quickly arranged, there is nothing to verify that they even happened, not even a ring. 　　Ruth sees trouble around every corner. So much so, you'd be forgiven if you mistook the pleasure cruiser for a fishing trawler casting a wide net for red herring. There is the gay divorcee who warned of lost husbands, and the leering steward and his inappropriate innuendos. There is also a little post-War paranoia, with the creepiest suspect being a German-accented man with a limp. Even the audience has some reason to doubt Ruth. We've seen John, but her whispered inner monologue makes us wonder if maybe we're not part of her persecution complex. 　　Directed by Joseph Newman, and based on a story by mystery writer John Dickson Carr, Dangerous Crossing may be the 24th entry in Fox's newly exhumed Film Noir series, but purists will find that definition stretched a bit to include this title. Though Newman does imbue the ocean liner with an atmosphere of dread, with its endless corridors, foggy decks, and even the occasional, subtle up-and-down shifting of the frame to simulate the queasiness of sea travel, he doesn't take full advantage. Dangerous Crossing lacks the hardboiled edge or blackened morality that is normally found on noirish streets. Plus, some of the more seasoned purveyors of the genre with a stronger sense of the grotesque would have never thrown a Halloween party on board without using masks and hidden identities to take advantage of the noir theme of reinvention. It's like Mr. Arkadin put on one of his costume parties and everyone showed up in their regular clothes. 　　Yet, if you're not bugged by misplaced tags and want a solid black-and-white suspense film, Dangerous Crossing should do the trick. Jeanne Crain makes for an excellent losing-her-mind heroine, and the script should keep you guessing right up until the big reveal.