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| Richard Conte and Barbara Stanwyck |
"I'm not fooled, doctor. I know death is a guest here. Though he sent me his compliments."
Karen Duncan (Barbara Stanwyck) is a successful concert pianist who comes to a sanitarium for treatment of an unspecified illness. She and her doctor, Anthony Stanton (David Niven), find themselves falling for one another, and he suggests that Karen spend many months just resting. But Karen is restless for life, and goes off with race car driver Paul Clermont (Richard Conte) for a romantic and wearying time in Monte Carlo. Trying to evade her fate, Karen only gets sicker ... The Other Love is based on the story "Beyond" by Erich Maria Remarque. Fourteen years after The Other Love was released, Remarque wrote the novel "Heaven Plays No Favorites," which was filmed as the Al Pacino starrer Bobby Deerfield, which also deals with a dying woman and a race car driver. The Other Love proves no more convincing than Deerfield and Stanwyck's fine performance is wasted in a trite, superficial soap opera. Although Stanwyck is never that good at portraying vulnerability, she easily out-acts her two male co-stars. Gilbert Roland has a nice turn as a croupier who tries to take advantage of Karen, and Joan Lorring [The Corn is Green] is notable as another doomed patient in the sanitarium. Natalie Schafer briefly appears to sparkle in that certain sleazy way of hers as a guest at Monte Carlo. Miklos Rozsa' score doesn't help at all. Roland had a much more memorable appearance with Stanwyck in The Furies. NOTE: For more on Bobby Deerfield see Al Pacino In Films and On Stage.
Verdict: Dark Victory this isn't. **.
Fascinating, the connection to Bobby Deerfield. That was Al Pacino and Marthe Keller, wasn't it? I do love Stanwyck, and enjoy Conte's edgy performances, so this still intrigues me though it may not be all that great...Stanwyck could never top Double Indemnity in my book, but she makes every movie watchable for me!
ReplyDelete-Chris
I couldn't agree with you more about Stanwyck. And yes, it was Marthe Keller in "Deerfield." She had a run of intriguing vehicles then sort of faded out.
ReplyDeleteIf only every movie was as good as "Double Indemnity" -- Stanwyck sizzled in that!