SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

bnwfilmbuff 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.

Rainey Dawn Well, I feel this one was geared more towards the teenagers and young 20-somethings for the time era with a message of "don't take people at face value" (a conversation between Paul and his friend Dr. Vincent explains it fairly well). Even though it's geared for a younger audience of the 1940s it's still a pretty good film to watch - nothing special but fun to watch.I will agree with others that the film's music is a bit too loud - it sometimes muffles the voices of actor's which is not good. There are times they do that in films as we are not suppose to hear what they are saying but in this case we are suppose to hear them and can but not as clearly as we should due to the music in a couple of scenes... but that does not spoil the plot/story.I like this film for some reason - maybe even more than I should for personal reasons.6.5/10

mark.waltz Forget you're watching Henry Aldrich being serious for a change. Jimmy Lydon gives a surprisingly convincing performance as a young man who discovers that his widowed mother (Sally Eilers) is involved with someone he instantly doesn't trust. That possible no-good man is played by the playboy of the '30's (Warren William) who is as suave and smooth as ever, and here, it is obvious that even if he isn't the nefarious fortune hunter Lydon believes him to be, he is up to something. At first, practically everybody around him believes this to be some adolescent attempt to keep his mother from forgetting her late, older husband, all except doctor friend Regis Toomey. The film opens with Lydon having a nightmare where the detailed clues come together as some type of pending doom. When details of this dream really begin to happen, Lydon pretends to have a breakdown so he can end up in the institution where he believes psychiatric professor Charles Arnt and William have cooked up a scheme against him and his mother.Like a later classic film noir, "The Window" (1949), this is the story of youth not being believed because they tend to over-exaggerate, or in Bobby Driscoll's case of the later film, actually did "cry wolf". Lydon is an intelligent youth with typical teenaged problems, and some of the mature figures around him believe he has a serious mother complex which needs to be cured in order to accept her re-marrying. To see him playing a role other than Henry Aldrich (Paramount's somewhat obscure version of the Andy Hardy series) is jarring at first as he proves himself to be a fine young dramatic actor. Eilers, a forgotten leading lady of the 1930's, is properly regal as his mom, and Toomey is less wooden than normal as the only father figure Lydon seems to be willing to accept. William is appropriately snake-like as he keeps tabs on his stepson to be, and while the audience is already in the know from the start that he is an opportunist, that doesn't prepare them for what the truth ends up becoming.During this era, the poverty row studios were giving the A studios a run for their money when it came to the film noir/thriller game with some interesting gems like "When Strangers Marry" (Monogram) and PRC's "Detour" and "Decoy", among others. "Strange Illusion" takes away the world-weary detective and scheming femme fatale for this unique film noir and gives us a hero in youth itself, determined to prove that sometimes, youth must be taken seriously and that sinister minds are sometimes hidden behind smiling faces. This makes another gem directed by the wonderful Edgar G. Ulmer, who took us on that wonderfully dangerous "Detour" the very same year.

huboon Although I would hesitate to call it "film noir," Strange Illusion is a tightly woven, intriguing mystery. For a Poverty Row production, the writers and Ulmer paced the film well and kept it interesting. The acting, although amateurish at times, doesn't distract from a believable story. My only real complaint about the film is the music-- too much and too loud.Brett's penchant for teenage girls is a refreshingly realistic perversion for a film of the '40s. It also stands in stark contrast to the "gee whiz" scenes which seem lifted straight out of "Leave It to Beaver."I rate it 7/10.