IMPULSE

Constance Smith and Arthur Kennedy

IMPULSE (1954). Director: Charles de Latour (Cy Endfield.)

Alan Curtis (Arthur Kennedy) is an American real estate man with a British wife named Elizabeth (Joy Shelton). Alan feels that his life is in a rut, and asks Elizabeth to forget her plans to go see her mother and go off for a second honeymoon in Paris on impulse. Elizabeth refuses, making Alan more susceptible to the charms of a pretty songstress with car trouble named Lila (Constance Smith), whose brother, Harry (Bruce Beebe), is in some kind of dire straits. Alan keeps doing whatever Lila asks and he gets wound up in some crooked business Involving diamonds, police inspectors asking questions, and a few bad guys who are up to no good. 

Constance Smith

Impulse features a typically good performance from Kennedy but the movie -- another bad British so-called suspense film with an American lead -- never really catches fire. As I've said before, this is the kind of movie that fades from memory even while you're watching it, and nothing of great import and excitement ever happens even when Alan becomes convinced that he's killed someone. A scene that almost becomes amusing occurs when the nosy, horse-faced neighbor, Miss Birchington (Jean St. Clair), comes calling when Lila is parading around Alan's house in a towel. The life of Constance Smith, who showed much promise in the beginning but wound up being thrown in jail more than once and tragically died an alcoholic, would undoubtedly been more interesting than this mediocre picture. Smith also appeared in Otto Preminger's 13th Letter. 

Verdict:  The very definition of "minor." **.