Tension (film)

Tension is a 1949 crime thriller film noir directed by John Berry, and written by Allen Rivkin, based on a story written by John D. Klorer. The drama features Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse, Barry Sullivan, and William Conrad.

In flashback, the bespectacled Quimby, night manager of the 24hour CoasttoCoast drugstore in Culver City, is married to the sluttish Claire Audrey Totter. Saving and doing without, he is able to afford a nice house in the suburbs, but she is utterly unimpressed, refusing even to look inside. She eventually leaves him for the latest of her conquests, rich Barney Deager Lloyd Gough. Quimby goes to Deagers Malibu 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 have killed the man. Deeply humiliated, Quimby takes up Freddies idea. He constructs a new identity, cosmetics salesman Paul Sothern, buys contact lenses and flashier clothes, and rents an apartment in Westwood. As he is moving in, he meets his new neighbor, beautiful, sweet Mary Chanler Cyd Charisse, whom he starts dating. ........

Source: Wikipedia