Whirlpool is a 1950 American film noir thriller directed by Otto Preminger and written by Ben Hecht and Andrew Solt, adapted from the 1946 novel Methinks the Lady... by Guy Endore. The film stars Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, José Ferrer and Charles Bickford, and features Constance Collier in her final film role. Its plot follows the insomniac wife of a wealthy Los Angeles psychoanalyst who, after a chance meeting with a hypnotist, is charged with a violent murder. Owing to anti-British statements screenwriter Hecht had made in the recent past concerning the United Kingdom's involvement in Israel, prints of the film initially circulated in the country replaced his credit with the pseudonym Lester Barstow. Plot Ann Sutton, the wife of Dr. William Sutton, a successful psychoanalyst, is caught shoplifting in an upscale Los Angeles department store, and loses consciousness when apprehended. She is saved from scandal by smooth-talking hypnotist David Korvo, who persuades the store officials to put the mermaid pin she stole on her credit account, and not prosecute. Korvo pressures Ann into coming to lunch with him, and she is relieved when, instead of accepting the blackmail payment she thinks he is after, he tears up her check and the store record of her shoplifting, and promises to help her. Ann, overcome with shame surrounding her secret, begins experiencing insomnia. She attends a sophisticated party with Korvo, where she meets Theresa Randolph, a former lover of Korvo's and one of William's patients. Korvo hypnotizes Ann at the party and instructs her to sleep, which works, but she does not respond to other orders. Ann meets Korvo at the hotel where he lives for further therapy sessions, but refuses to go up to his suite and insists on talking in public in the hotel bar. Korvo distracts her and takes the martini glass with her fingerprints on it, as well as her scarf. Later that night, Ann enters a trance, takes two vinyl records from her husband's patient archives and brings them to Theresa's house, where she hides them in a closet before discovering Theresa's murdered body in the den. Ann's entry into the home sets off a silent alarm, and police arrive moments later. Before regaining full lucidity, Ann confesses to hating Theresa. Her scarf is found in the home, and the martini glass is found in Korvo's apartment. Police charge her with murder, presuming she strangled Theresa