Maddyclassicfilms The Naked Edge is directed by Michael Anderson, has a screenplay by Joseph Stefano which is based on the novel by Max Ehrlich. The film stars Gary Cooper, Deborah Kerr, Diane Cilento, Ray McAnally, Peter Cushing and Eric Portman.This is a cracking thriller, filled with plenty of tension and good performances. The film struck me as being very similar to Hitchcock's Suspicion, focusing on the wife beginning to doubt her husband and fear for own safety a little.George Radcliffe(Gary Cooper)witnesses a murder and robbery. Donald Heath(Ray McAnally)is arrested for the crime, he strongly insists that he is innocent but at the end of the trial he is found guilty and sent to prison.Some time later Radcliffe's wife Martha(Deborah Kerr)receives a blackmail letter which claims George was the killer. Martha slowly finds herself beginning to doubt her husbands innocence and becomes frightened of him.George says he is innocent and is hurt that she could doubt him. Martha tries to get to truth and even meets the blackmailer(a sinister performance by Eric Portman)to try and get to the truth. Up until the final scene we're not sure just how innocent or guilty George is and that adds to the suspense and tension the film builds up. Cooper plays the character in a way that you can see guilt if you look for it, you can also see innocence too and you're never entirely sure what to make of him.Cooper and Kerr are excellent, I think it's a real shame that they never made other films together. Diane Cilento is very good as the wife of Heath, she knows her man is innocent and will stand by him no matter what, she believes George is the real killer. Eric Portman is creepy as the mysterious blackmailer.I think the music spoils the film, it is much too loud and intrusive in scenes where music wasn't needed. Apart from that this is a very good thriller.

Catharina_Sweden What is most remarkable about this movie, is that if one did not know it was not so, one would believe it was a Hitchcock movie. It is even more hitchcocky, than the real ones! The plot was interesting and intelligent, and I am glad Gary Cooper turned out to be the good guy after all! He looked very old, haggard and ill, though. It was heart-wrenching to see him like that, as he used to be so handsome, strong and vital. I wonder why it was necessary for him to make another movie at this stage of his terminal illness? Deborah Kerr was beautiful, ladylike and stylish and with that kind, innocent quality, as always.I like movies about moral questions, that make me think "what would I have done?". The truth is, that when I was younger, I would probably have reacted like Martha. I would have felt, that I had to know. But today? Today I would probably have turned a blind eye, kept quiet, not risked the good life I had finally achieved (or rather: that my husband had achieved for me), and the life with the man I loved. This is not because I have turned more callous, because I do not believe that I have. But because I have realized that I do not anymore have so many good years left, and that if I lost everything now it would be too late to achieve it new. So I would hold on to what I had. And I would tell myself that no matter what it was not MY guilt - I had not committed any crime, and I had not encouraged any either.

skoogs-3 I watched this film and when it was over I wondered how Ms Kerr got from her romp on the beach with Burt Lancaster in 'that' earlier film, then in another falling in love with Cary Grant,and in yet another earlier film having an adventure on a desert island with Robert Mitchum- to being almost chucked into a hot bath with the view of having her wrists slashed by some maniac!! This is just not on! This is just not cricket for Ms Kerr! Having said that I'm sure Ms Kerr would reprimand me strongly (I wish) for mentioning her yet again for 'that' scene in'From Here to Eternity.' Obviously we cannot see to the future,including film stars as to which film to appear in, but I would wager if Deborah Kerr could have her choice once more she would avoid this one. Other than that she gives her best of what there is of the film - including being married to the usual wooden unsmiling Gary Cooper which was a silly movie-miss-match in my opinion, almost as silly as his 'marriage' to Grace Kelly in 'High Noon'. As Ms Kerr oozes class Gary Cooper looks lost without his shred of straw dangling from his mouth.

sol1218 Heavy handed drama where every move and action, no matter how insignificant it is, is followed by a loud blast of orchestra-like music that almost blows you out of your seat. In many cases the music is aided by quick and ultra-sharp close-ups that makes you think that your seeing a Mel Brooks comedy of an Alfred Hitchcock film like the 1977 movie "High Anxiety". These techniques are done over and over in the movie "The Naked Edge" that after a while you forget what the story is all about in the first place. Gary Cooper in his last movie, before he died on May 13, 1961, looks drawn and tired as George Radcliffe a witness to the murder of his boss Jason Roote, Martin Boddey,and the robbery of 60,000 pound-sterling from the London office of the Jason Roote Air-Fright corp where he works. It was Radcliffe's testimony that sent fellow worker Donald Heath, Ray MacAnally, away for life. Radcliffe seems to be hiding something about the crime that happened at the Jason Roote office from his wife Martha, Deborah Kerr. That's the main core of the story in the movie "The Naked Edge" but you have to suffer through almost 90 minutes of ridicules Hitchcock-like dramatics to get to the truth in the last ten minutes or so of the movie which, the films totally contrived ending, didn't seem worth sitting through. Even top stars like Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr as well as Eric Portman and Peter Cushing couldn't save this turkey. We see at the start of the movie George Radcliffe testify about a murder and robbery at the Jason Roote office in a weird dream-like flash-back where Roote is murdered, off-screen. The killer, unrecognizable in dark shadow, takes off with a sack of the companies daily c.o.d's amounting to 60,000 pound-sterling. Searching for the killer the police find Heath in the boiler room drunk but the money is nowhere to be found. Identified by Radcliffe as the murder Heath is convicted and sent to prison for life. It's right after that were bombarded with clues and innuendos to who the real killer is. It's not until almost the end of the movie that we finally find out just who he is when Radcliffe finally regains his lost memory of the event. Watching the film is like going 15 rounds in the ring with a 30 year-old Rocky Marciano that in the end leaves you totally punch-drunk from the pounding to your five senses that the movie gives you. The blasts of music and eye-popping close-ups as well as the strain on your brain make any kind of sense of what your seeing on the screen moot.A key piece of evidence shows up five years after the Roote murder that's in a letter that was lost in the mail addressed to Radcliffe that's being used to blackmail him for the crime. Radcliffe also came into a large sum of money just after the Roote murder which he tells his confused and surprised wife Martha that he made in a "Killing" in the stock market. You sit through the rest of the movie wondering if Radcliffe did or did not kill Jason Roote and stole the 60,000 in pound-sterling. Radcliffe at the same time does everything possible to convince you, and his wife Martha, that he did and almost drives her to commit suicide. The really off-the-wall and obnoxious ending in the movie is far worse then the murder/robbery in the film "The Naked Edge". It just about does you in and leaves you in an almost comatose state of mind.