This movie was excellently directed and acted, almost flawlessly so. Yet the plot lost focus along the way and created too many ambiguities.
Sally Gray was the primary interest in the film. Though compared to Ginger Rogers, she was more like Veronica Lake. Indeed, at the end she actually appears with her hair in a peek-a-boo style. She looked stunningly beautiful in the film throughout but also gave a superb performance.
The problem is it's hard to justify why she would stay with her husband/partner who showed almost no virtues throughout the film. To make a relationship like that work, the husband should have been written as loving for the most part with a little flaw of temperament. As it is it's hard to see what someone like Vivienne (Gray) could see in him, especially since he seems much older than her and is not especially good-looking. It's true she admires his illusionist artistry, but that's hardly enough to keep a woman attached to a man.
Also puzzling is the man-wife relationship of Michael Redgrave (Peter) and his wife, Pat, played by Patricia Roc. Their relationship is barely touched upon and seems out of place in the film. Moreover, the film apparently sees no problem in Peter's obsession with Vivienne, which actually amounts to adultery (he kisses her passionately) though they have no sex in the film. The failure of the film is it doesn't even address the implications of Peter's double romantic life as if it were of no consequence. Keep in mind the year the film was made, which makes Peter's potentially adulterous affair even more puzzling. Did audiences of the time care?
I also found the brusque ending a letdown. It's an ending that might work in a half-hour Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, but not in a feature-length movie where we develop an affection for the leading lady.
Finally the subplot regarding Pat's telephone job seems too episodic with the rest of the film.
But one can cast all that aside and enjoy the stunning beauty of Sally Gray, the fine direction, acting, and editing throughout and even some illusionist episodes,
