Tension

Synopsis

Lt. Collier Bonnabel (Sullivan) of the Homicide Bureau introduces himself and discusses his technique for solving a murder: apply ever more pressure on the suspects. Increase the tension until the murderer cracks or gives himself away. He demonstrates the concept of increasing tension by stretching a rubber band ever tighter and tighter. Bonnabel continues as a voice-over as the case involving Warren Quimby (Basehart) commences. Quimby, a pharmacist, works nights to make money to satisfy his sexy, demanding wife, Claire (Totter). Despite Warren’s attempts to please her, Claire accepts the attentions of other men and goes out with them. Ultimately, she leaves Warren for Barney Deager (Gough), a flashy salesman, who has plenty of money to spend on her. Barney beats up Warren when he tries to get Claire to come home.

Vengeful, Warren plots to murder Barney. He invents a new personality, Paul Sothern, and rents an apartment where to live on weekends. Warren, as Paul, threatens Barney over the telephone. At the new apartment, Warren becomes friends Mary Chanler (Charisse), a fine young woman and the opposite of Claire. At a moonlit beach, Mary declares her feelings for Warren, who, despite his growing love for Mary, says he is the wrong man for her, because he cannot give up his plan to kill Barney. Finally ready to carry out his plan, Warren goes to Barney’s house and attempts to stab the sleeping man. At the brink of murder, he cannot do it. Barney awakens as Warren stands over him with a weapon. Warren declares that he came to kill him, but is no longer angry and vengeful, Barney and Claire (who has already started seeing other men) deserve each other.

Now carefree, Warren plans to divorce Claire and be with Mary, but is unhappily surprised when Claire returns to tell him that Barney has been murdered. Bonnabel and Lt. Edgar Gonsales (William Conrad) arrive to question the couple. Claire lies about their relationship with Barney, describing him as an old friend. Warren says little. The police are looking for a man named Paul Sothern, who threatened Barney. Claire and Warren deny knowing him. After the detectives leave, Claire tells Warren that she is back, and he better play along with her. Angry, Warren slaps her, but he stays away from Mary.

Mary, not hearing from Paul, becomes concerned and goes to the missing person bureau. She has a picture of the missing man, and the police identify Paul Sothern as Warren. He is arrested. He tells them the truth about planning to kill Barney but denies the actual murder. Bonnabel releases Warren because he does not have enough evidence against him; the gun used in the murder has not been found. Bonnabel, using his tactic of applying pressure and exploiting the weaknesses of suspects, decides to work on Claire, whose weaknesses he understands thoroughly. Romancing her, Bonnabel tells Claire that Warren cannot be charged without the gun as evidence. Furthermore, he and Gonsales are being removed from the case, and a new team of detectives will take over and initiate a new investigation. Claire, who wants to have herself cleared and does not want any more investigations of her relationship with Barney, retrieves the gun and tries to plant it in Paul’s apartment. Mary sees her and follows her into the apartment. Warren arrives and demands to know why Claire is there and what she is doing. Bonnabel and Gonsales come in, and Claire tells them she was hunting for the gun. Bonnabel reassures her and tells her to keep looking. She pulls the gun out from under the sofa cushion where she had hidden it. Bonnabel lies and tells her that the gun had not been in the apartment that morning because they had replaced all the furniture the previous night. Claire breaks down. Bonnabel has applied tension, and Claire has cracked. Bonnabel and Gonsales arrest her. Warren and Mary are left alone to plan their happy future.

Discussion

Tension is an intriguing drama that is unusual for its plot construction. It is organized into two sections. The first section focuses on Claire’s rejection of Warren, and Warren’s revenge plot. The second section focuses on Bonnabel's use of 'tension' to pressure Claire into revealing her guilt. Claire remains the central character as the action shifts from her relationship with Warren to her relationship with Bonnabel.

Selfish and greedy, Claire manipulates men with her sexual allure and receptiveness. Claire scorns fidelity to any man, including her husband. She readily responds to flirtation, sticks to a new man for a while, gets bored, and takes up with someone else. Warren was cute at first, but his efforts to please her have become tiresome, and she leaves him for Barney. Audrey Totter supplies plenty of sexual heat to her portrayal of Claire, displaying her seductiveness by means of pouty and teasing facial expressions and slinky body movements. A rather husky voice and a languid speech pattern accentuate her allure.

Richard Basehart generally maintains a youthful, fresh-faced appearance. However, during Warren’s second encounter with Barney, he takes on a nasty, scornful demeanor that changes him from slightly menacing into downright frightening. It’s a look Basehart had recently used to good effect in He Walked By Night (1948).

André Previn, barely twenty years old, composed the score, one of his first, featuring quietly romantic strings behind Warren and Mary on the beach, mysterious and sinister strings as Warren approaches Barney to kill him, and Claire’s own theme played on bluesy alto saxophones. Previn, composer, conductor, arranger, and noted jazz pianist, conducted symphony orchestras in Europe and America, composed in varied genres, won four Academy Awards, and received many Grammy awards. He was created a Knight of the British Empire in 1996, and received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement in music in 1998.

Despite a nearly sixty-year career in theater and film, director John Berry and his films are little known, except for He Ran All the Way (1951), John Garfield’s final film. In 1951, Berry was named a member of the American Communist Party at a House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearing. To avoid testifying to the committee, Berry moved to Paris where he spent thirteen years in self-exile. His American career did not resume until 1964. His films, before, during, and after his years in Europe, are highly varied in quality, ranging from interesting and provocative, to inferior and boring.

Berry was attracted to theater at an early age and began his career as an actor. After joining the Mercury Theater and assisting Orson Welles, Berry soon became interested in directing. A significant early experience was his 1942 tour with Welles' road company of the play Native Son (1941). The enormous prejudices he observed on this tour may have influenced his choice of subjects later in life. Berry went to Hollywood in 1944. Producer John Houseman, who knew him from his affiliation with the Mercury Theater, hired Berry to direct Miss Susie Slagle's (1946). His subsequent films were a series of ups (Tension, From This Day Forward) and downs (Crossing Hearts, Casbah). He directed the documentary short The Hollywood Ten (1950), about the ten writers and directors who had refused to testify to HUAC and were jailed for contempt of Congress. Director Edward Dmytryk, one of the ten, recanted and named communist party members, including Berry, at a HUAC hearing in April 1951. Before he could be called to testify, Berry moved to Paris.

While in Europe, Berry wrote and directed for stage and screen. In 1957, he co-wrote the screenplay and directed Tamango, a French-produced film about an 18th century slave ship rebellion. The film did well in Europe but major US distributors refused to handle it, presumably due to its depiction of an interracial romance. When released in the US by a small distribution company, Tamango played to good business in many larger cities. Berry returned to the US in 1964 to direct an Off-Broadway production of Blood Knot (1961), a two-character play by South African playwright Athol Fugard. While continuing his theater work, Berry returned to directing American-made films. Claudine (1974), starring Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones, was a success. Two more, Thieves(1977) and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978), were not good. Subsequently, he directed a few made-for-television movies and a few films in Europe. His final film was an interesting adaptation of an Athol Fugard play, Boesman and Lena (2000), filmed in South Africa.