Impulse

Borrowing the moral lesson of Pitfall (1948), Cy Endfield’s Impulse is a neat, compact noir that serves as a warning to happily married men everywhere who, seeking more excitement in their lives, fly too close to the seductive sun. Even if the script doesn’t always give him clear motivation, Arthur Kennedy is excellent as American-in-England Alan Curtis who one night escapes his boring life in the suburbs by becoming involved with a beautiful, mysterious visitor named Lila (Constance Smith) when his wife Elizabeth (Joy Shelton) leaves to visit her mother for several days. Brought together by chance, Lila tells Curtis that she’s a nightclub singer from London who’s in town to help her trouble-making brother who’s on the run from the police. Of course, this information will soon prove to be one hundred percent false. Instead, Curtis finds himself in love (at least lust) with Lila, in deep with a gang of thieves and murderers, and in trouble with the police. Endfield offers plenty of plot twists and suspenseful moments to keep viewers on edge, and occasionally serves up the inventive camera angles and gritty settings we want from noir. Cast member note: Despite her striking exterior beauty, Constance Smith’s interior pain was legendary. As the oldest of 11 siblings born in Ireland, a teen-aged Smith won a beauty pageant for most resembling Hedy Lamarr, but her film career never took off; she became addicted to drugs and alcohol, served prison terms for stabbing lovers, attempted suicide countless times, and later found employment as a maid.