After moving up from secretarial to screenplay work for Alfred Hitchcock in the ‘30s & early ‘40s, and before producing his eponymous tv show (‘50s - ‘60s), Joan Harrison became one of the pioneer woman producers in Hollywood. A species you could count on the fingers of one hand. And this twisty murder tale, told in flashback from the witness box at a courtroom trial, is fairly typical of her mid-range output. Pretty good, too. Robert Young (slightly miscast*) stars as a serial philanderer on trial for murder . . . but whose? His wife’s dead; the mistress he left her for is dead; an earlier mistress is living, but staring daggers; defendant Young has a lot of explaining to do. But will the jury believe him? Will you? Susan Hayward, Jane Greer & Rita Johnson are the women in the case, nicely cast as common lover; work place sympathizer; and rich, controlling wife. Johnson’s particularly good as the wife, pulling up stakes and taking Young to an isolated home to keep him by her side. He still manages to get away, only to find tragedy & betrayal waiting for him. All now exposed in court after an inconvenient body turns up. Jack-of-all-Hollywood-trades/journeyman director Irving Pichel keeps the plotty action clear enough, but hasn’t the flair or personality to jolt things to life. Watch for a great camera move pushing in on Young when he receives a phone call in the middle of a massage to see what’s missing elsewhere. Still fun though, with a neat ‘have your cake and eat it too’ tag ending someone deserved a bonus for.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/DOUBLE-BILL: *The part needs an amoral vibe Young can’t provide. At R.K.O., where this was made, that’d be more Robert Mitchum’s line. Something you can see in the film Jane Greer made right after this with Mitchum, film noir pinnacle OUT OF THE PAST/’47.
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