Joan Bennett gives a compelling performance as Lucia Harper, a suburban housewife who covers up for her teenage daughter when she accidentally kills her caddish lover, a blackmailing Lothario. When the dead man’s partner in crime (James Mason) starts sniffing around, the noose tightens around Lucia’s neck. Can she manage all her domestic and familial duties during the Christmas holiday—while avoiding blackmail, scandal, and arrest? Max Ophüls’ direction is enthralling and elegant, turning a perfectly realized screenplay into a masterpiece of suspense. The wonderful art direction by Cary Odell and Frank Tuttle is enhanced by Burnett Guffey’s supple camerawork, which evokes the sun-burnished light of Balboa, California, as well as the dark corners of the oceanside paradise.

35mm print courtesy of the Library of Congress