Strange Fascination (1952) DVD-R

Starring Cleo Moore, Hugo Haas, Mona Barrie,
Rick Vallin and Karen Sharpe
Directed by Hugo Haas

Print: black/white
Runtime: 80 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B

The third of actor Hugo Haas' endeavors as producer-director, Strange Fascination is at least superficially better and more original than the first two. While it's true that Haas once more deploys the theme of a middle-aged man falling hopelessly in love with a much-younger woman, he eschew his usual fondness for melodrama in favor of sentiment. Haas plays Paul Marvan, an international renowned concert pianist. Marvan's career goes into eclipse almost immediately after his marriage to the beautiful Margo (Cleo Moore, in the first of her many Hugo Haas films). It isn't anyone's fault, really: it is simply that Cruel Fate is dead set against Mr. and Mrs. Marvan ever enjoying true happiness. The grimly ironic finale of Strange Fascination is proof positive that there is, indeed, a long long time from May to December.