I've always suspected that some politicians were in league with the devil, and this political thriller is one of those that will make you look at those men who stand behind your councilman, senator, governor, president. Like "The Devil and Daniel Webster", "The Bishop's Wife" and "An Angel on My Shoulder" (the last two being on the other, more desirable side),there is no doubt who the other worldly being is, or at least working for. In this, the year of a Presidential election, it is fascinating to go back and watch political thrillers like this, even if at least, to wake you up to the obsession with power and the men with the money who put these people in power. Thomas Mitchell is running for Governor and finds himself being influenced by a mysterious man named Nick Beal. Another Oscar Winning Actor Ray Milland plays the dark and deadly Beal who will utilize whatever means he can to get Mitchell under his thumb, whether it be blackmail, murder or even a sexy blonde to control him.

Chilling performances dominate this excellent film that you may not want to watch before you go to bed. Milland's Nick isn't a charming, rascal type version of Bealzabub like Walter Huston's in "The Devil and Daniel Webster" or Ray Walston's singing and dancing one in "Damn Yankees". This one is frighteningly real, a definite wolf in sheep's clothing with his Hollywood handsome leading man looks and dashing facade. He's closer to Damien in "The Omen" movies than Huston's Mr. Scratch. Audrey Totter is the down-on-her-luck femme fatal used by Milland to assist in his evil plans, and is excellent. George MacReady adds another great characterization to his list of seemingly strange men. Fascinating art direction, brilliant photography and a lovely music score are among the technical achievements. The film might strike some viewers as a bit preachy, but it really has a lesson worth preaching 60 years later (and 13 presidents since).

From 1949, we have Ray Milland, Thomas Mitchell, Audrey Totter, and George Macready in "Alias Nick Beal."

Thomas Mitchell plays Joseph Foster, an ethical DA who is working to get rid of the mob influence in his city. One day, he meets a man, Nick Beal (Milland) who offers him evidence against a mobster he is trying to put away. But he has to obtain it illegally, and he does.

After that, Foster is put forward for governor, and he acquires an attractive secretary (Totter) and becomes distant from his wife. Meanwhile, a reverend friend, Thomas (Macready) is suspicious of Beal and can't help thinking he's seen him before.

A riff on the Faust story, this is a very good noir with an excellent performance by a soft-spoken, unflappable Milland as Beal. Thomas Mitchell could always do pathetic well. Totter, a frequent noir actress, is excellent as the pawn of Nick Beal, doing his bidding for a gorgeous apartment and beautiful clothes.

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. Here he's clothed as Nick Beal. Fine film, recommended.

Rarely spotted on TV even by midweek insomniacs, brushed aside even by aficionados of the Hollywood past, Alias Nick Beal is a top-notch movie that puzzlingly languishes in limbo. It's an unusual but successful cross of the supernatural fantasy films popular in the forties – like Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Heaven Can Wait, The Devil and Daniel Webster – with the grittier conflicts of the big-city exposés in film noir.

Thomas Mitchell, a progressive and muckraking mayor, won't rest easy until he eradicates corruption from his unnamed town. But incriminating ledgers detailing the graft of a rival political-machine boss have been burned. Mitchell gets a call asking for a mysterious meeting at a waterfront bar, The China Coast Café, where, like a wraith out of the harbor fogs, materializes Ray Milland. Ordering Barbados rum (with its voodooish connotations),he introduces himself as Nick Beal, which seems to be the short Americanization of Beelzebub. He offers Mitchell the pristine ledgers, from which the mayor can nail down a conviction and propel himself to the governor's mansion; trouble is, now he's stuck with the sinister Beal.

Unflappable in his suavity, Milland stays pitchfork-perfect in his scheme to strip Mitchell of his honesty and ideals. He enlists the help of bar floozie Audrey Totter, who turns herself into Mitchell's Gal Friday and diverts his affections from his wife (and conscience) Geraldine Wall. And every time Mitchell thinks he's compromised his principles for the last time or struck his final dirty bargain, in slithers Milland with another twist of the knife, a brand-new temptation. Finally elected to the statehouse, Mitchell finds that he's sold his soul to the very forces that he had always fought...

Alias Nick Beal has to be, hands down, the most sure-footed movie John Farrow ever directed; he never slips in sustaining its spectral look or precarious tone. Totter, too, excels in a part that tests her range, from a cat-fighter in a sleazy dive through efficient political aide to repentant cat's-paw. This may be her most fetching performance, particularly in her drunken exchange with a bartender: `What time is it?' `You just asked me that.' `I didn't ask you what I just asked you, I asked you what time it is.' Mitchell and Milland can't be faulted at the top of a cast that includes George Macready as a preacher who can't quite place Milland: `Have you ever had your portrait painted?' he gingerly inquires. `Yes – by Rembrandt in 1655," comes the smug retort. (The screenplay is by Jonathan Latimer, who also penned The Glass Key, Nocturne, They Won't Believe Me, Night Has A Thousand Eyes, and The Big Clock.)

This morality tale about the seduction and fall of a promising politician echoes themes explored in the same year's All The King's Men but adds a fanciful metaphysical dimension. That may look like a cop-out, a way to avoid tackling the issues realistically, but the metaphysics can be seen as metaphorical – Satan can be a symbol (and as Macready remarks, maybe he knows it's the twentieth century, too). Whatever one's take on The Spirit That Denies, the movie survives triumphantly on its own terms – the splendid and satisfying Alias Nick Beal doesn't deserve the obscurity that has come to enshroud it.