Phantom Lady

Back when one simple plot twist was enough to warrant an entire movie. Phantom Lady is one of those dialogue-heavy noirs, a film that has a pretty decent mystery setup but does very little with it. Instead, you get endless conversations between people who have cardboard personalities.

When Scott goes out for a drink, he meets a woman with a peculiar head and spends the evening chatting with her. When he comes back home he finds his wife strangled to death. Scott pleads guilty and wishes to use the woman he chatted with as an alibi, but nobody seems to remember her.

Much of the film feels like watching a play adapted to the screen. People talk in barren rooms and try to solve a riddle that hinges on a rather tepid finale. Though the poster promises one of the most talked-about mysteries in a decade, I assume it's much like the scariest-ever horror promos nowadays. Much ado about nothing.