Tension (film)
Tension is a 1949 American crime film noir directed by John Berry, and written by Allen Rivkin, based on a story written by John D. Klorer. It stars Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse and Barry Sullivan. Plot Police Lieutenant Collier Bonnabel of the homicide department explains to camera that he only knows one way to solve a case: by applying pressure to all of the suspects, playing on their strengths and weaknesses, until one of them snaps under the tension. He then cites a murder case involving Warren Quimby. In flashback, the bespectacled Quimby, night manager of the 24-hour Coast-to-Coast drugstore in Culver City, California, is married to Claire, who is unfaithful to him. After saving and making sacrifices, he's able to afford a nice house in the suburbs, but she's utterly unimpressed, refusing even to look inside the home. She eventually leaves him for the latest of her conquests, rich Barney Deager. Quimby goes to Deager's beachfront house to try to get his wife back, but she wants nothing to do with him. When Quimby persists, Deager beats him up. He tells his sympathetic employee Freddie what happened. Freddie remarks that if it had been him, he would've