Although this film is included in most standard reference works on film noir, it's a "women's picture," belonging to that group of films ("Gaslight," "Midnight Lace," etc.) in which a husband is trying to drive his wife to suicide so that he may inherit her money and marry the floozy he's been carrying on with. In true noir, the plot situation would be reversed: a sexy woman entrapping a man to do murder ("Double Indemnity," "The Postman Always Rings Twice" etc.)
This film held my attention throughout and features a number of interesting performances. Here Don Ameche is cast against type as Richard Courtland, the conniving husband. Claudette Colbert plays Alison, his wife. She gives a satisfactory portrait of a very outgoing, charming society woman. Colbert was 44 when she made this film, but she appears younger. Raymond Burr turns up as a good guy here, playing a police lieutenant, rather opposite to the way Burr was usually cast, especially in noir. Rita Johnson does a fine bit as a ditzy rich society woman, Babry (ha!), a friend of Alison's from school days. A lot of this character would have been too much, but screenwriter St. Clair McKelway allowed her in just when she was needed to relieve tension. Hazel Brooks did a swell job as Daphne, Richard's cold, icy mistress who's in a hurry to see Alison dead so she can marry Richard and gain access to all of Alison's money. And Robert Cummings, in one of his more appealing screen portraits, plays Bruce Elcott, Mr. Right, Alison's savior.
The film has a good opening. Alison wakes up on a train, not knowing how she got there. The train is shown rushing through the night, Alison unable to stop it. There's a good sense of loss of control, of being whisked along to some unknown destination, powerless to stop the force taking her there. Is this nightmare or reality?
This film was directed by Douglas Sirk who went on during the 50s to direct a number of fancy melodramas with aging movie queens ("Imitation of Life"- Turner, etc.), but some of the hallmarks of those later productions are to be seen here in the fine wardrobe Colbert wears, in the fashionable Sutton Place setting, in the high society background.
NOTE: MAJOR SPOILER HERE, so don't read further if you don't want to know the film's outcome. But I want to correct an error in a major noir reference source. The plot summary in Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style by Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward and others has a major error in it and Ward's comment, which follows the plot summary, makes a misinterpretation because it relies on this error.
I watched the film's conclusion more than once, using the freeze frame and slow motion buttons to be sure my remarks are accurate. The film ends this way:
Richard has indeed drugged Alison before she goes to sleep. He goes to the kitchen to wash carefully the glass he'd put the drug in. We also learn he's given the servants the night off. And we see Vernay come into the back yard and rear entrance of the house. Richard tells Vernay to go into the living room and stand in the same position he'd taken up some weeks earlier to frighten Alison.
Richard then goes to Alison's bedroom, finds her fast asleep and begins to speak to her, suggesting that she must go down the stairs and into the living room of their home and shoot Vernay. "He's come to kill you," says Richard. "He's waiting downstairs. . . . The gun. Take the gun, there on the table." And so on. Under the influence of the drug Richard gave her earlier, Alison obeys Richard's commands. (All of this drug bit is movie hokum you'll just have to accept to enjoy this film.)
When Richard and Alison stand outside the sliding doors of the living room's entrance, the shadow of Vernay looms up behind the glass of the doors. Alison is pointing the gun toward Vernay, her finger on the trigger. "Shoot before he kills you," directs Richard. She can't do it, so Richard pulls the trigger for her. The shot shatters the glass in the door and Vernay falls out of sight.
Richard immediately calls the police. "I want to report a murder," he shouts into the phone. But Vernay is not dead- - just wounded. And he emerges from the living room. "Hang up that phone," he directs, and Richard does so, starting to mumble lame excuses, realizing his double-cross of Vernay has not worked. Alison has been shocked back into reality by all of this. "Mrs. Courtland, I insist that you listen," Vernay shouts and reveals details of the plot Richard and he were working against her.
With that, VERNAY shoots and KILLS RICHARD. He turns to Alison and cries, "I just killed your husband, Mrs. Courtland, and now you're going to kill yourself."
At that moment, in comes Bruce Elcott, who throws a lamp at Vernay. This has the unfortunate effect of plunging the room into darkness. But Bruce gives chase to Vernay, who mounts the staircase to the top of the house. Lights go off and on; gunshots are exchanged as Bruce and Vernay go up the stairs. Vernay tries to escape through the skylight at the top of the stairs but falls several stories to the entrance hall to his death. I knew that those earlier shots up the magnificent staircase had to be put to some use, and Vernay's fall to death is a spectacular climax.
At this point, Bruce Elcott finds Alison and enfolds her in his arms, telling her, "Alison don't cry. In a little while, we'll be out of this house forever." The End.
This film held my attention throughout and features a number of interesting performances. Here Don Ameche is cast against type as Richard Courtland, the conniving husband. Claudette Colbert plays Alison, his wife. She gives a satisfactory portrait of a very outgoing, charming society woman. Colbert was 44 when she made this film, but she appears younger. Raymond Burr turns up as a good guy here, playing a police lieutenant, rather opposite to the way Burr was usually cast, especially in noir. Rita Johnson does a fine bit as a ditzy rich society woman, Babry (ha!), a friend of Alison's from school days. A lot of this character would have been too much, but screenwriter St. Clair McKelway allowed her in just when she was needed to relieve tension. Hazel Brooks did a swell job as Daphne, Richard's cold, icy mistress who's in a hurry to see Alison dead so she can marry Richard and gain access to all of Alison's money. And Robert Cummings, in one of his more appealing screen portraits, plays Bruce Elcott, Mr. Right, Alison's savior.
The film has a good opening. Alison wakes up on a train, not knowing how she got there. The train is shown rushing through the night, Alison unable to stop it. There's a good sense of loss of control, of being whisked along to some unknown destination, powerless to stop the force taking her there. Is this nightmare or reality?
This film was directed by Douglas Sirk who went on during the 50s to direct a number of fancy melodramas with aging movie queens ("Imitation of Life"- Turner, etc.), but some of the hallmarks of those later productions are to be seen here in the fine wardrobe Colbert wears, in the fashionable Sutton Place setting, in the high society background.
NOTE: MAJOR SPOILER HERE, so don't read further if you don't want to know the film's outcome. But I want to correct an error in a major noir reference source. The plot summary in Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style by Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward and others has a major error in it and Ward's comment, which follows the plot summary, makes a misinterpretation because it relies on this error.
I watched the film's conclusion more than once, using the freeze frame and slow motion buttons to be sure my remarks are accurate. The film ends this way:
Richard has indeed drugged Alison before she goes to sleep. He goes to the kitchen to wash carefully the glass he'd put the drug in. We also learn he's given the servants the night off. And we see Vernay come into the back yard and rear entrance of the house. Richard tells Vernay to go into the living room and stand in the same position he'd taken up some weeks earlier to frighten Alison.
Richard then goes to Alison's bedroom, finds her fast asleep and begins to speak to her, suggesting that she must go down the stairs and into the living room of their home and shoot Vernay. "He's come to kill you," says Richard. "He's waiting downstairs. . . . The gun. Take the gun, there on the table." And so on. Under the influence of the drug Richard gave her earlier, Alison obeys Richard's commands. (All of this drug bit is movie hokum you'll just have to accept to enjoy this film.)
When Richard and Alison stand outside the sliding doors of the living room's entrance, the shadow of Vernay looms up behind the glass of the doors. Alison is pointing the gun toward Vernay, her finger on the trigger. "Shoot before he kills you," directs Richard. She can't do it, so Richard pulls the trigger for her. The shot shatters the glass in the door and Vernay falls out of sight.
Richard immediately calls the police. "I want to report a murder," he shouts into the phone. But Vernay is not dead- - just wounded. And he emerges from the living room. "Hang up that phone," he directs, and Richard does so, starting to mumble lame excuses, realizing his double-cross of Vernay has not worked. Alison has been shocked back into reality by all of this. "Mrs. Courtland, I insist that you listen," Vernay shouts and reveals details of the plot Richard and he were working against her.
With that, VERNAY shoots and KILLS RICHARD. He turns to Alison and cries, "I just killed your husband, Mrs. Courtland, and now you're going to kill yourself."
At that moment, in comes Bruce Elcott, who throws a lamp at Vernay. This has the unfortunate effect of plunging the room into darkness. But Bruce gives chase to Vernay, who mounts the staircase to the top of the house. Lights go off and on; gunshots are exchanged as Bruce and Vernay go up the stairs. Vernay tries to escape through the skylight at the top of the stairs but falls several stories to the entrance hall to his death. I knew that those earlier shots up the magnificent staircase had to be put to some use, and Vernay's fall to death is a spectacular climax.
At this point, Bruce Elcott finds Alison and enfolds her in his arms, telling her, "Alison don't cry. In a little while, we'll be out of this house forever." The End.