This taut and suspenseful thriller finds a devilishly clever Edward G. Robinson ("Mr. Wilson") on the trail of the Nazi who allegedly devised the whole concept of mass annihilation in the concentration camps. Having released one of his erstwhile minions "Meinike", he hopes that he will lead to him the big fish. Well he does, sort of - but suddenly disappears in a small town leaving "Wilson" with little to go on but his target's infatuation with all things horological. Enter a typical, recently married, couple - the "Rankins" (Orson Welles & Loretta Young) on the surface, a perfectly average pair but one whom "Wilson" suspects has a sinister past and so he sets out to prove this. Welles is not great here, but workmanlike with this acting performance (he directed this too); Young a little too over-the top an times, but the last 20 minutes are gripping and psychologically charged - there is a palpable feeling of evil and menace as "Wilson" cleverly manipulates the situation to try to reel in his catch. Welles fares better with the direction - he builds a tension that, even though we know fairly early on who is whom - keeps us interested right til the end.
