High Wall

Steven Kenet (Robert Taylor) says he killed his wife, but even he doesn't really know. A wartime head trauma has left him subject to disorientations and blackouts. So Kenet enters a psych ward where, the DA asserts, he'll hide behind the wall of an insanity plea. But truth cannot hide. And Kenet -- assisted by a ward doctor (Audrey Totter) -- is driven to find that truth. With bravura use of genre trademarks like expressionist shadows and subjective camera, director Curtis Bernhardt (Possessed) builds a High Wall into a film noir psychological thriller that, little noted its day, is ready for an honored place amid the shadowy shrines of noir. Go behind the wall into the inner sanctum of noir and consciousness.

• crime
• drama