The Prowler

1951

1h 32m

Mystery & Thriller

List

100%

18 Reviews

Tomatometer

84%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

After being frightened by a peeping Tom at her mansion in the suburbs, the beautiful Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) calls the police for help. When a policeman, Webb Garwood (Van Heflin), arrives, he becomes infatuated with Susan, and the two engage in an affair. Susan soon ends their relationship, choosing to remain with her husband, John (Sherry Hall). However, Webb's obsession with her continues to grow, until he begins plotting to kill John and cash in on his life insurance policy.

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nick s

Well acted movie, nicely paced.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/10/24

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Audience Member

By definition, this barely rates as film noir. More like a crime drama without the snappy dialogue and long shadows. It's alright and it can hold your interest, but only the finale manages to crank up some tension.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The rectangle-within-a-rectangle symmetry of the window within the frame of the movie screen in the opening scene reinforces the notion that the filmgoer is essentially a licensed Peeping Tom. The Prowler may be the creepiest of classic noirs.A down and dirty masterpiece.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

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andrey k

A strangely creepy movie with one of the most creepy characters outstandingly played by Van Heflin: he's disgusting and at the same time you can't take your eyes off him, watching him conceiving evil plans and effectuating them. It's a non-conventional psychological film noir with an intense plot and very good suspense.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

Great noir movie. Creepy. Wonderful cinematography. Written by AND narrated by Dalton Trumbo

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Surprisingly creepy film noir about Van Heflin playing a police officer who becomes obsessed with housewife Evelyn Keyes after she reports a peeping tom incident. Heflin then sets about creepily seducing Keyes and then plots to kill her husband for his life insurance in hopes of running off with Keyes. I don't want to spoil too much, but film gets even weirder from there. Directed by Joseph Losey and written by Dalton Trumbo under a pseudonym while he was blacklisted, this film felt pretty subversive for it's time, touching on themes of sexual perversion and corruption, but ti's Heflin's creepiness that makes this film really work. I've never been a fan of Heflin, but it was pretty easy for me to accept him as an icky stalker. This film reminded me of Jonathan Kapaln's "Unlawful Entry" and I'm sure this film was an influence. A better than average noir that novelist James Ellroy ("L.A. Confidential", "The Black Dahlia") once called this his favorite film and described it as "a masterpiece of sexual creepiness, institutional corruption and suffocating, ugly passion."

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Joseph Losey

Director

Van Heflin

Webb Garwood

Evelyn Keyes

Susan Gilvray

John Maxwell

Charles "Bud" Crocker

Katherine Warren

Grace Crocker

Emerson Treacy

William Gilvray

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David Thomson

The New Republic

It's really a quick, deft analysis of a kind of world where corruption and easy answers are on the advance.

Jun 24, 2013

Full Review

Keith Uhlich

Time Out

As the plot, concocted in part by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, gets more and more outlandish the films loses its degenerate luster.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 17, 2011

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J. Hoberman

Village Voice

The Prowler may be the creepiest of classic noirs.

Mar 16, 2010

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Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

The notion of a police stalker bending rules for the sake of controlling a situation and possessing a woman would continue to fuel mind-benders for decades to come.

Rated: 7/10

Aug 23, 2020

Full Review

Jeremy Heilman

MovieMartyr.com

The Prowler becomes a twisted vision of American entrepreneurship, with the two leads forming a grotesque nuclear family.

Rated: 78/100

Jul 24, 2012

Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Losey's magnificently ruthless dismantling of his characters' veneers and delusions and self-made traps

Mar 18, 2012

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Synopsis

After being frightened by a peeping Tom at her mansion in the suburbs, the beautiful Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) calls the police for help. When a policeman, Webb Garwood (Van Heflin), arrives, he becomes infatuated with Susan, and the two engage in an affair. Susan soon ends their relationship, choosing to remain with her husband, John (Sherry Hall). However, Webb's obsession with her continues to grow, until he begins plotting to kill John and cash in on his life insurance policy.

Director: Joseph Losey
Screenwriter: Hugo Butler, Dalton Trumbo
Production Co: United Artists
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 5, 2016
Runtime: 1h 32m

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