Plagued by an overwhelming urge to shoplift, Ann Sutton (Gene Tierney) is helped out of a tight spot by David Korvo (Jose Ferrer). Soon afterwards, she is found at the scene of a murder with no memory of how she got there and seemingly no way to prove her innocence.
There is no doubt that people will do strange things under hypnotic spell and that the techniques of hypnotism may be villainously employed. But you don't catch this fairly rational corner believing for one minute the hocuspocus that goes on.
Whirlpool's stand-out scene, in which a somnambulant Gene Tierney incriminates herself ... uses the conventions of horror cinema as much as that of noir.
