Tension

A tightly controlled, well-developed if slightly bland thriller of infidelity and murder, TENSION opens with a police detective speaking directly to the audience. Everybody has a breaking point, he explains, stretching a rubber band tighter and tighter, until at last it snaps. Like the rubber band, a man can only be stretched so far. The story concerns Basehart, a modest pharmacist who is emotionally shattered when he learns that his wife (Totter) is having an affair with Gough. Basehart decides to murder his rival, devising an elaborate plan that necessitates taking a completely new identity in order for the pharmacist to have a legitimate alibi. Under this guise,...