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the audience applauded

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Muted thriller about a young man, who recently lost his father, having nightmarish dreams that his mother and family are being taken for a ride by a smooth-talking gigolo that he suspects are incrementally turning into reality. This starts out interesting enough, but thirty minutes in, the entire plot is disclosed and the movie is reduced to a second-rate suspense. Warren Williams as the man pursuing the young man's mother (Sally Eilers) is excellent as he is never too overly fawning or overtly sinister yet we know he's dangerous. Equally good is Charles Arnt as Professor Muhlbach, the plot mastermind. Arnt and Williams have good chemistry. The protagonists in this were weak. Jimmy Lydon bounces back and forth from mature young man to being the gee whiz kid. Regis Toomey as Lydon's sounding board is much too bland. The women were largely decorative never really displaying any sense of vulnerability or terror. This is an okay viewing but I wouldn't go out of my way to seek it out.

From PRC productions, "Strange Illusion" from 1945 is directed by Edgar Ulmer, a man known for making a low-budget film look it isn't. He succeeds.Paul Cartwright is a young man still mourning the death of his father, who was once Lieutenant Governor of California. He died while looking into the drowning of a wealthy woman. While away at school, Paul dreams that his mother (Sally Eilers) is in love with someone who is a danger to her; the dream also shows an image of his father's automobile accident that doesn't look like one.After consulting a family friend, a psychiatrist (Regis Toomey) he decides to go home, especially after a couple of things happen similar to his dream. When he arrives, he realizes his dream was spot on -- his mother is in love with Brett Curtis (Warren William), and Paul is immediately suspicious of him. Paul begs his mother to wait to get married. He wants to look into Curtis a little more. Curtis, however, a maniac living as an outpatient in a sanitarium, is in a big rush to get his hands on Virginia's inheritance. In cahoots with him is the doctor who runs the sanitarium.This film is in the public domain, so I may have seen a heavily edited version. It may have been released as an A movie - hard to tell. The story is compelling and holds interest, and one really cares about the characters. This is partly because Warren William is as oily as a gusher, and Sally Eilers seems to vacillate as to whether or not she will adhere to her son's wishes.The dream sequences were very good and atmospheric. However, there were a couple of problems with the film. I'm not sure why Sally Eilers (born in 1922) was cast as the mother of Jimmy Lydon (born 1923) and Jayne Hazard (born in 1923). They were all pretty much the same age! I know Paul's father married a younger woman, but from looking at his portrait, she could have been in her forties. Though the acting was okay, Jimmy Lydon is slightly miscast as the son. This is basically the plot of Hamlet, so someone a little less sunny would have been good and would have given the film more gravitas.As it is, it's very good. Lydon, still alive as of this writing, acted through the '80s and helped create the series 77 Sunset Strip and M*A*S*H. He also produced the television adaptation of the film Mister Roberts.

This minor film noir has competent direction, good cinematography, solid production values, and an imaginative story line that makes it rise above the typical crime drama of that era.Jimmy Lyndon is excellent as a gawky college student haunted by a bizarre precognitive dream of his family and dead father, who was a judge murdered under mysterious circumstances.Sally Eilers delivers a nuanced performance as his mother, who has fallen under the spell of a suave conniving gigolo, perfectly played by Warren William with his rich, deep, mellifluous voice and sophisticated mannerisms.The plot twists and turns when Lyndon is sent to a mental hospital to be treated for neurosis and hallucinations under the care of a villainous psychiatrist (Charles Arnt). During his confinement, Lyndon uncovers evidence that William is a serial killer in cahoots with the psychiatrist and is preparing to strike again...Although the entire cast delivers good performances, Lyndon and William are outstanding and well worth the price of admission.

Hamlet, Freud and Edgar Ulmer may seem like an unnatural group of pals, but among them they have come up with a tidy little psychological thriller. In fact, with a bigger budget and stronger actors, Ulmer might have had a classic on his hands. As it is, Strange Illusion can't escape its Poverty Row heritage. Even so, it's a well-paced movie that keeps a person's interest. Even if the best-acted roles are the bad guys, that's not necessarily a drawback in a B movie. Paul Cartwright's father, an older man and a respected judge, died two year ago in a train accident...at least it appeared to be an accident. Paul's not so sure. Paul (James Lydon) is a young man from a good family. He has a younger sister and an attractive mother, Virginia Cartwright (Sally Eilers). The family is well off. Paul lately has been having dreams, disturbing dreams, of his father telling him to take care of his mother, to be wary of a shadowy someone who is coming into her life. Paul confides in an old friend of the family, Dr. Martin Vincent (Regis Toomey), who tries to calm Paul but who also respects Paul's intelligence. Paul is, in fact, smart and resourceful. Then one day Paul's mother introduces him to Brett Curtis (Warren William), a smooth, gracious man Paul feels he's met before. Curtis and his mother announce that they plan to wed. Paul becomes suspicious of Curtis and Curtis' association with Professor Muhlbach (Charles Arnt), a psychologist who runs an exclusive and very private sanitarium. Before long, Paul becomes a "guest" in the place so that he can investigate Muhlbach and Curtis. But things begin to go wrong. It becomes a race to see if Paul can break away, if Dr. Vincent can convince the police that there may be a link between the death of Paul's father and the team of Curtis and Muhlbach, and if Paul and some of his friends can get to the lake cottage where Curtis has gone with Paul's sister. James Lydon had a great success as a child actor, especially playing in the Henry Aldrich films. He was typecast as a gawky, friendly, well-intentioned kid. Strange Illusion was an attempt by him to break out of those roles as he grew older. He's not a gifted enough actor to carry the weight of the movie, but he certainly gives the role all he's got. He's no embarrassment. The acting interest, however, comes from Charles Arnt and, especially, Warren William. Arnt gives the professor a great gloss of smiling insincerity. He's unethical down to his polished fingernails. Warren William really shines. William was a tall, broad-shoulder man with a profile that out- Barrymored Barrymore's. He had a creamy baritone voice and a smooth manner. Although he was in private life a shy man long-married to one woman, in movies he became typed as a charming rotter. He was big stuff in the early Thirties, but by the late Thirties had slowly moved down to B movies. In Strange Illusion, at 51, his profile was still as sharp as a crease, but his face was beginning to look its age. His eyes were a little puffy and pouched, the jaw line not quite so firm. With the Curtis character, William's face looks like dissipation. As soon as we see Brett Curtis walk into Virginia Cartwright's parlor to be introduced to Paul, we know this man is as insincere as a head waiter. Later, while we watch him try to sweet-talk Virginia into to an early marriage, all the while subtly looking over the daughter, we know the ghost in Paul's dream was right on. William does a fine job showing us a creepy, dangerous charmer. Ulmer starts the movie with the dream sequence. It's B movie special effects but it serves the purpose of getting us into Paul's mind and preparing us to believe in Paul. Be forewarned. There's a brief dream sequence at the end which verges on the icky.