The 3rd Voice


The 3rd Voice is a 1960 American neo noir thriller crime drama film directed and written by Hubert Cornfield, who also produced the film with Maury Dexter. It is based on the novel All the Way by Charles Williams and stars Edmond O'Brien, Laraine Day, and Julie London.

Plot

The Man is the accomplice of Marian Forbes, the spurned mistress of a tycoon. She coaches The Man in impersonating the voice and appearance and habits of the intended victim. The Man begins his masquerade in a Mexican resort, where he meets Corey Scott and moves on to contemplating the murder of his tutor, but things begin to go awry.

Cast

List of the actors in the film:
The film was produced by Robert L. Lippert's Associated Producers Incorporated, which produced lower-budget films for 20th Century Fox. Lippert bought the rights to the book and arranged for Hubert Cornfield to adapt and direct. Lippert and Fox president Spyros Skouras increased the budget to a level that co-producer Maury Dexter described as a "nervous A class" of film. The film was shot in and around Los Angeles and Malibu in October 1959.
According to Dexter, during filming, Cornfield accused O'Brien of not knowing his lines and O'Brien threatened to punch Cornfield on the last day of filming, though this may not have happened.

Reception

Dexter claims that the film received positive reviews and "did fairly well at the box office."
In a contemporary review for the New York Times, critic A. H. Weiler called the film "... taut, complex and eerily fascinating for only about three-quarters of the way. A dénouement that seems telegraphed and contrived and some situations that are overly garrulous and static keep 'The Third Voice' from reaching a high pitch of excitement."
The Los Angeles Times called the film an "interesting thriller."