
Sudden Fear
1952

He took another man's name... lived another man's life... loved another man's woman!
An Englishman in France unwittingly is placed into the identity, and steps into the vacated life, of a look-alike French nobleman.

An Englishman in France unwittingly is placed into the identity, and steps into the vacated life, of a look-alike French nobleman.
Alec GuinnessJohn Barratt / Jacques De Gue
Bette DavisCountess
Nicole MaureyBela
Irene WorthFrancoise
Pamela BrownBlanche
Annabel BartlettMarie-Noel
Geoffrey KeenGaston
Noel HowlettDr. Aloin
Peter BullAristide
Leslie FrenchLacoste
Alan WebbInspector
Eddie ByrneBarman
Peter SallisCustoms Official
Harold KasketNight Porter (uncredited)
Sam KyddMan (uncredited)








Availability for your region. Streaming data provided by JustWatch.
Alec Guinness walks into a bar where he encounters his doppelgänger. They might be twins. His "Barratt" character is a teacher of French at an British university, his mirror image an impoverished local aristocrat. The two drink together, then end up sharing the latter man's hotel room. In the morning, "Barratt" wakes up and there is no sign of his roommate. Next thing, a chauffeur arrives and, assuming he is the aristocratic version of himself, takes him to their chateau where he meets the (his) family. Clearly he is being manipulated, but why and by whom? It does not take him long to realise that this family is pretty dysfunctional - lead by the morphine-addicted "Countess" (Bette Davis in her best Elizabeth I form), with his wife , his mistress and his daughter all adding to this familial maelstrom. Guinness is quite good here, but somehow the premiss didn't quite gel for me. He accepts the fake life and it's people all too readily. There are no protestations or police visits; his narrative (spoken throughout) does not reconcile easily with his actions and the ending, though I did quite like it, was all just a bit too rushed and convenient. The photography with them both on screen at the same time is flawless, and Bronislau Kaper's score fits well with the story too, but it's all just a little lacklustre.

1952

1966

1955

1949

1979

1946

1940

1946

2003

1950

1945

1943

1954

1954

1946

1956

2018

1938

1947

1951