mark.waltz This comedy thriller needs to be seen to be believed. It's half mystery/half Three Stooges, and a stunning look at Central Park in the mid 1960's. Rock Hudson is a noted psychiatrist, approached by Jack Warden in the middle of the park, and asked to assist him with a former patient. But there's more to it than meets the patient's closed file, as we find out when the former patient (Alejandro Rey) tries to strangle him, and later when a hot tempered dancer (Claudia Cardinale) arranges for a rather abrupt encounter with him along the Central Park bridal path, overlooked by the Dakota.The encounter reveals to Hudson that more is going on than he was initially lead to believe, but Hudson manages to keep one step ahead of her, eventually breaking the ice until Warden demands that he breaks it off with her. But there's no way that's going to happen, leading to twice as much intrigue, verbal humor and physical pratfalls, and enough trips through Central Park to keep a pedicab in business for six months. The many paths and bridges of Central Park almost become like characters, and much of it remains unchanged. But a good movie set in a popular city needs much more than just location to make a good film, and much of that involves not only the scenery but the farce as well. One sequence in the middle of a long gone storage house near the reservoir actually has Hudson swinging around with a canoe over his shoulders, ultimately spraying his enemies with paint. It's all very finny, but this makes it seem closer to a Bugs Bunny cartoon than a 60's thriller. There's some fun supporting performances by well known character players, especially Anne Seymour as an Eve Arden like secretary who obviously tells boss Hudson how to run his office. I guarantee that you won't be bored, but you'll be laughing at it, not just with it.

Edgar Soberon Torchia The original poster of this film read in big characters: "Behind the blindfold is the greatest security trap ever devised!" These formulaic promotional campaigns can kill a movie, as in this case, an above average comedy drama that today is almost forgotten. Better than one could expect, considering that Philip Dunne as a filmmaker was not among the best visual stylists from New York, "Blindfold" benefits from his talent for words and structure. He was a very good scriptwriter and for this comedy he wrote a fine script with clever dialogue (with the collaboration of theater instructor and writer W.H. Menger) for an above average mystery thriller based on a novel by Lucille Fletcher, the author of the famous radio plays "Sorry, Wrong Number" and "The Hitch Hiker". Rock Hudson might not have been as solid an actor as others who in the early 60s were in similar films (as Cary Grant in "Charade" or Gregory Peck in "Arabesque" and "Mirage"), but he excelled in romantic comedies and there's a good amount of elements from this sub-genre in "Blindfold", sharing screen time and space with Claudia Cardinale, who also knew how to be very funny. As a matter of fact I prefer Hudson paired with beautiful brunette leading ladies of European origin (Gina Lollobrigida, Paula Prentiss, Leslie Caron, Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Simmons and Claudia) than with Doris Day or Julie Andrews. Recommended.

bkoganbing Blindfold is a clever and entertaining film with an interesting moral to it about some folk's paranoid obsession with security. As lead Rock Hudson plays a psychiatrist he's in a perfect position to diagnose the problem. Can he find a cure though when security is compromised?Hudson's practice includes some of New York's society bigwigs and he's quite the lady's man within that set. But one day he gets a call from a general in civilian attire played by Jack Warden who wants him to treat a former patient of his who is now a government scientist and who has had a nervous breakdown. But we can't let the Commies or anyone else know about it.So Hudson is flown a couple hours to an old mansion where Alejandro Rey is being held and he does his psychiatrist thing and he's blindfolded as well. Two other people are concerned, Claudia Cardinale as Rey's sister who is telling the world about her brother's kidnapping and in point of fact he was. And there's the stuttering Guy Stockwell who convinces Hudson that Warden is a fake.A great deal of the film is spent with poor Hudson trying to get answers to questions with no one 'authorized' to tell him. So who is real and who is fake, Warden or Stockwell? That you see the film for.Blindfold is a delightful comedy and suspense film in the Hitchcock tradition. As is the mark of a good film, supporting the charming leads is a flawless cast of memorable performances. Besides those I've already mentioned there is Anne Seymour as Hudson's secretary, Brad Dexter as a thick as a brick NYPD detective, Vito Scotti and Angela Clarke as Cardinale and Rey's parents and a mule named Henry who gives the plot a kick in the right direction.For fans of Rock Hudson and those who will be after seeing Blindfold.

drystyx This was once a mainstay of top movies for TV, but has since become forgotten, a victim of being one of the better movies. The older movies shown now are picked by the same people who have money in new movies, so they won't show good competition. This one had Rock Hudson playing a likable psychiatrist who becomes involved in espionage, treating a man who is a high level security risk. He is taken to the location several times, always blindfolded, and later, he must retrace his steps when he realizes something has gone wrong. A beautiful girl also has an interest in finding this location, and she builds a relationship with Rock, who does a great acting job of a heterosexual. Lots of great action, some of it before it's time. When this film was made, textbooks still claimed that no alligator ever killed a human being. Alligators become a major force here. There are lots of interesting bits, especially with the transportation the pair use in the swamp, "Henry". Enjoyable, and has all the classic attributes great movies have, without a lot of fanfare and big all star cast (although there are a few fairly big names). Well directed, and lots of fun.