The wife of a psychoanalyst falls prey to a devious quack hypnotist when he discovers she is an habitual shoplifter. Then one of his previous patients now being treated by the real doctor is found murdered, with her still at the scene, and suspicion points only one way.
Preminger's ambiguous relation to his characters and his sense of moral relativity have seldom been put to such haunting use.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
23 Oct 2007
rotten:
There is no doubt that people will do strange things under hypnotic spell and that the techniques of hypnotism may be villainously employed. But you don't catch this fairly rational corner believing for one minute the hocuspocus that goes on.
– Bosley Crowther,
New York Times,
23 Oct 2007
fresh:
It's a fine example of the way Preminger, on occasion, managed to deflect routine melodrama into something more personal and profound.