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Thursday, April 2, 2020

THE SECRET FURY (1950)

Who would want to ‘gaslight’ Claudette Colbert? And on her wedding day to Robert Ryan? Slightly older, much richer, she’s delighted by her groom, a straight-talking architect with rough edges, only to be blindsided at the ceremony by a mystery guest who rises to say he does knows a reason why they shouldn’t be married . . . she already is! And the more she investigates, the worse things look. Though not nearly as bad as they will after a confrontation with her supposed husband leaves the man dead and a smoking gun at her feet. It’s murder! And a trial with cast-off flame Paul Kelly as prosecuting attorney. Yikes! Good fun half of the way, the film overloads after Colbert has a courtroom breakdown, lands in the looney bin and Ryan has to take over to get to the bottom of things. Mel Ferrer in his second directing gig hasn’t developed the chops to turn the screws on action & suspense (note the blown ‘shock’ cut on Colbert’s unexpected return home), but fortunately, all the actors seem to be having such a jolly time it only matters a little. None more so than a decidedly venal Vivian Vance just a year away from becoming Ethel Mertz for I LOVE LUCY. But it’s mostly Claudette, tearing a passion to tatters in the witness box, and Ryan, loyally punching for info & the honor of his putative bride, who make this work.

DOUBLE-BILL: Colbert’s final scenes set up a nice compare & contrast with Ingrid Bergman’s great mad revenge against Charles Boyer in George Cukor’s GASLIGHT/’44.

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