The Prowler

"Watch out for…"

1951 1h 33m EN

👍

6.8

SOLID

🔥

100%

CERTIFIED FRESH

⭐

7.1

IMDB

★6.8TMDB · 97🍅100%Rotten Tomatoes★7.1IMDB · 4,414

DramaThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Los Angeles, California. A cop who, unhappy with his job, blames others for his work problems, is assigned to investigate the case of a prowler who stalks the home of a married woman.

“Watch out for…”

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Cast

Van Heflin
Webb Garwood
Evelyn Keyes
Susan Gilvray
John Maxwell
Bud Crocker
Katherine Warren
Grace Crocker
Emerson Treacy
William Gilvray
Madge Blake
Martha Gilvray
Wheaton Chambers
Doctor James
Robert Osterloh
Coroner

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Joseph Losey
Writers: Dalton Trumbo, Hugo Butler, Robert Thoeren
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

75 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Joseph Losey, shot by Arthur C. Miller. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Lyn Murray. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Paul Weatherwax shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Van Heflin and Evelyn Keyes and John Maxwell carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Watch out for…".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0043938 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 97 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Joseph Losey directs. Arthur C. Miller behind the camera. Lyn Murray scores. Paul Weatherwax cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

175 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Directed by Joseph Losey, shot by Arthur C. Miller. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Lyn Murray. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Paul Weatherwax shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Van Heflin and Evelyn Keyes and John Maxwell carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "Watch out for…".
7IMDB entry: tt0043938 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 97 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
9Classified under 21 themes, including "sociopath", "los angeles, california", "pregnant woman", "radio show host".
10Released under 11 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Arthur C. Miller
Original score: Lyn Murray
Editing: Paul Weatherwax
Production design: John Hubley
Makeup / hair: Marie Clark
Runtime: 93 min · 1h 33m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: The Prowler (1951)
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% 🍅 Fresh
IMDB rating: 7.1/10 · 4,414 votes
MPAA: Approved

Also by

Joseph Losey

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2017-03-18
★ 9/10
Edgy noir piece in desperate need of a wider audience. Van Heflin plays Webb Garwood, a grumpy and unhappy cop who is called to investigate a suspected prowler at the home of Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes). Garwood is smitten with the young and attractive woman from the off, and sensing her marriage to a late night radio personality is far from happy, he sets about wooing her, obsessively. It's the start of a coupling that is going to travel down a particularly dark road. The film opens quite brilliantly with a quick shift of tone, Susan Gilvary is pampering herself in her bathroom, we see her from the window, domestic contentedness. This shot is accompanied by jaunty and jolly music, but then in the blink of an eye, she spies something out the window (it's us you know), a scream, the music becomes troubled and she draws the blind. Welcome to Joseph Losey's creepy skin itcher, The Prowler. Very much a two character piece, The Prowler flips the favoured femme fatale formula around to great effect. Here it's the male protagonist that is the seducer, a cop no less, the abuse of power hanging heavy over proceedings like, yes, some "prowler" lurking in your back garden. It's made clear to us very early on that Garwood is troubled, he's up to no good, with a snarl here and a shifty smirk there, we just know that poor Susan is under threat from a man meant to protect her. Yet in a perverse piece of writing, Garwood surely does love Susan, but the bile within and the skew whiff way he now views the world-and his place within it, has ultimately made him a most dangerous anti-hero. It's evident that the makers here are wryly observing, but without preaching about, the shady underbelly of the American dream, the social differences of the two characters a most intriguing aspect of the story. As is the shift from the affluent setting of the Gilvray home in the first half of the piece, to the finale played out amongst the ghost towns in the Mojave Desert. The desolation of the landscape has rarely been so apt in a noirish world. Technically The Prowler boasts high quality. Losey's direction is tight and holds the viewer in a vice like grip, while the art direction from Boris Leven is superb, particularly in that first quarter as the bright Gilvray house is cloaked in sparse darkness. But it's with Heflin, and to a lesser extent, Keyes, that the film reaches its high points. Keyes' character frustrates immensely, her decision making annoys and her surrender to Garwood is at first hard to swallow. But this is a testament to the good work that Keyes does, that she can induce these feelings for the character is surely a job well done. Heflin, tho, is a different kettle of fish. A criminally undervalued actor in his generation, Heflin serves notice here that he could play a bad guy convincingly, almost terrifyingly so too. His shift from meek, almost puppy dog love yearner, to conniving bastard is handled adroitly and gives film noir one of its best homme fatales. Back on release big hitting critics such as Manny Farber and Wallace Markfield unreservedly praised the film. While pulp writer supreme James Ellroy is quoted as saying it was one of his favourite films. So it's somewhat surprising that it took until late 2010 to receive a DVD release, that, much like the machinations of Webb Garwood, is very much a crime. Moody, bleak and corrosive in its telling, this is a must see for noir and Heflin purists. 9/10

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