Writer Baynard Kendrick drew upon his military service in World War I, assisting with the rehabilitation of soldiers blinded in combat, to inform a series of mystery novels featuring a sightless private detective. A stickler for accuracy, Kendrick labored to ensure that all of his thirteen whodunits featuring ex-Army Intelligence officer Captain Duncan Maclain were true to life, never permitting his protagonist to fall back on the literary device of a sixth sense to bring the killer to justice. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer twice brought the character of "Mac" Maclain to the big screen, first in Fred Zinnemann's Eyes in the Night (1942) and again in The Hidden Eye (1945), directed by Richard Whorf. Playing Maclain in both features was Edward Arnold, an older, portlier take on the character as written but convincing as a sleuth who does not need eyes to see the truth. Based on The Last Express, the first of Kendrick's Maclain novels (published in 1937), The Hidden Eye enmeshes its indefatigable hero in a murder mystery involving members of a wealthy family. Though modestly mounted, the programmer is rich in talent, with Arnold's performance backed by supporting work from Mercury Theatre trouper Ray Collins, veteran Hollywood heavy Jack Lambert, and - in an unbilled bit as a perfume counter salesgirl - Audrey Totter, a year or so away from starring roles in the noir classics The Lady in the Lake (1947) and The Set Up (1949). Though MGM retired Mac Maclain after this film the character was retooled, albeit liberally, for the short-lived ABC-TV series Longstreet, starring James Franciscus.

By Richard Harland Smith