The Man in the Net


The Man in the Net is a 1959 American film noir mystery film starring Alan Ladd and Carolyn Jones, and directed by Michael Curtiz. The supporting cast features Diane Brewster.

Plot

Ex-commercial artist John Hamilton and wife Linda have left New York and moved to Stoneville, Connecticut, in the New England countryside. John spends his time sketching the town's children, to whom he is a close friend, but his ambitions to be a fine artist are at this point frustrated by a failed art show and bad reviews. Meanwhile Linda longs to return to the city, where John has been offered a lucrative job at his old firm. It transpires that John is against this idea, as the bustle of the city had exacerbated Linda's mental illness and fuelled her alcoholism.
John returns home after a day's sketching to find Steve Ritter, a local policeman, in his house with Linda upstairs changing clothes. John is cold towards Steve and after Linda appears, Steve leaves. The couple argue. Linda then insists they attend a birthday party at the home of Brad and Vickie Carey, where the guests include another married couple, Roz and Gordon Moreland, as well as the wealthy father of Brad Carey. At the last minute, Linda decides she doesn't wish to go, and pushes John to attend alone. John feels an outsider with most of the guests, but he attends, using the excuse Linda suggested to explain her absence, a migraine. Later a scene is created when Linda appears at the party with a black eye and claims John did this and invented the migraine excuse. At home, in anger, she tells John she's been having an extramarital affair with Steve Ritter.
John agrees to go to New York to have a drink with his old boss, a meeting arranged by his wife behind his back, but is resolute that he will decline the job offer. When he returns, Linda is nowhere to be found. A suitcase belonging to her is spotted by a city dump. Unable to find John's wife, police and neighbors suspect him of murder. Villagers stone his house. Ritter arrives to arrest him. John flees and is given refuge by the children, who know of a secret cave.
Evidence is found linking Linda to another man. A tape recording is left as bait, and John, who suspects someone else, is surprised when Brad turns up looking for the tape. It reveals he's the one Linda had the affair with, but John soon discovers that it was Mr. Carey who actually killed Linda to cover up for his cowardly son.

Cast

The film was based on a 1956 novel by Hugh Wheeler, writing as Patrick Quentin. Film rights were bought the following year by the Mirisch Company, who had a deal with United Artists. Alan Ladd was signed to star in January 1958. Reginald Rose, who had just written Man of the West for the Mirisches, signed to write the screenplay. Michael Curtiz directed.
Filming started 23 June. The film was mostly shot in Hollywood at the Goldwyn Studios with some location shooting at Raceland in Framingham, Massachusetts. Many of the outdoor scenes were shot in Thompson, Connecticut, on the town common where a set was built and at the Ballard Farm. Also, the exterior of "The Chimney House", a location that figures prominently in the story is Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, Connecticut.
The paintings done by Ladd's character were painted by Frank Stovall, as well as two of Carolyn Jones by Harold M. Kramer and others by Hilyard Brown.

Reception

When the film was released, Richard W. Neson, film critic for The New York Times, wrote "More interesting is the dialogue by Mr. Rose and his preoccupation with injustice. The lines show a keen love for kids and an honest regard for the need to interject reality into a yarn that is tediously familiar once it settles down into its melodramatic formula. Miss Jones plays the wife with controlled fanaticism. Mr. Ladd, on the other hand, performs in his usual, cool style, which under the hectic circumstances mutes his personality to the point of unreality."