This film should have been better somehow. It has a lot going for it, in terms of the cast (with Stewart Granger and then wife Jean Simmons cast in roles which generate friction, not love). This is like the negative to their relationship in YOUNG BESS. In that story the plot of Admiral Thomas Seymour to grab control of England's throne through forcibly marrying Princess Elizabeth was twisted into a romantic tragedy (the first of many for the "Virgin Queen"). But the story held one's interest, and the script was well written (in particular giving that rising talent Deborah Kerr her first pathetic victim part as Katherine Parr Tudor Seymour).
This is set in Victorian times, and is based on a story by W.W.Jacobs. Don't confuse him with his rival late Victorian/Edwardian/Georgian short story writer H.H. Munro. The latter, ever recalled by the nickname "Saki" is remembered for his impudent and brilliantly sardonic stories of life in the early 20th Century in Europe, like "Tobermory" and "Shredni Vasthar" and "The Interlopers". Jacobs was always W.W.Jacobs, and is principally recalled for one masterpiece of suggestive horror: "The Monkey's Paw". If one looks at his spot on the IMDb board, many films (mostly forgotten) were based on his short stories (mostly forgotten). One that did get made was based on "The Money Box", and was turned into Laurel & Hardy's comedy about two sets of twins, OUR RELATIONS. And there was this film. If it is not as good as a film with Granger and Simmons as YOUNG BESS, it is not as good a movie based on a tale by Jacobs as OUR RELATIONS.
Briefly it is the story of two connivers who's goals run into each other. Granger is seen at the beginning returning from the cemetery, having buried his wife. Only when we are alone do we realize that far from mourning the loss he is very satisfied. Naturally this raises suspicions in our minds - and in the mind of an ambitious maid in the house played by Simmons. She finds proof that the wife did not die naturally, but was poisoned. She proceeds to force Granger to marry her. This was not in his scheme of things, and so he decides that Simmons must go. But in their scheming and counter-scheming others get hurt, and suspicions begin to recirculate concerning both of them.
The story's resolution resembles an Eric Portman film of a few years before (not based on the Jacob story) called DEAR MURDERER. Oddly enough, that film was a better movie about an ill-mated pair of vipers. Whether the flaw here was that the script seemed to drift along, or the directing was not as crisp as it should be is hard to tell. For the sake of the cast, starting with it's two leads, I have given it a five. However, DEAR MURDERER would have gotten an eight.
This is set in Victorian times, and is based on a story by W.W.Jacobs. Don't confuse him with his rival late Victorian/Edwardian/Georgian short story writer H.H. Munro. The latter, ever recalled by the nickname "Saki" is remembered for his impudent and brilliantly sardonic stories of life in the early 20th Century in Europe, like "Tobermory" and "Shredni Vasthar" and "The Interlopers". Jacobs was always W.W.Jacobs, and is principally recalled for one masterpiece of suggestive horror: "The Monkey's Paw". If one looks at his spot on the IMDb board, many films (mostly forgotten) were based on his short stories (mostly forgotten). One that did get made was based on "The Money Box", and was turned into Laurel & Hardy's comedy about two sets of twins, OUR RELATIONS. And there was this film. If it is not as good as a film with Granger and Simmons as YOUNG BESS, it is not as good a movie based on a tale by Jacobs as OUR RELATIONS.
Briefly it is the story of two connivers who's goals run into each other. Granger is seen at the beginning returning from the cemetery, having buried his wife. Only when we are alone do we realize that far from mourning the loss he is very satisfied. Naturally this raises suspicions in our minds - and in the mind of an ambitious maid in the house played by Simmons. She finds proof that the wife did not die naturally, but was poisoned. She proceeds to force Granger to marry her. This was not in his scheme of things, and so he decides that Simmons must go. But in their scheming and counter-scheming others get hurt, and suspicions begin to recirculate concerning both of them.
The story's resolution resembles an Eric Portman film of a few years before (not based on the Jacob story) called DEAR MURDERER. Oddly enough, that film was a better movie about an ill-mated pair of vipers. Whether the flaw here was that the script seemed to drift along, or the directing was not as crisp as it should be is hard to tell. For the sake of the cast, starting with it's two leads, I have given it a five. However, DEAR MURDERER would have gotten an eight.