THE SECRET FURY

Claudette Colbert and Robert Ryan

THE SECRET FURY (1950). Director: Mel Ferrer. Colorized version.

Ellen Ewing (no relation to J. R. Ewing) is about to marry architect David McLean (Robert Ryan), when a strange man (Willard Parker) interrupts the ceremony and insists that he was present when Ellen married another man -- she is about to commit bigamy! Ellen insists that she never heard of her "husband," Lucian Randall (Dave Barbour). Although Ellen's Aunt Clara (Jane Cowl) seems to fear that her niece might have had a nervous breakdown, David has a more supportive attitude and sets off with his fiancee to find Randall and get to the bottom of this mystery. The couple get more than they bargained for when a murder is committed and Ellen is accused. Is she the victim of a far-reaching conspiracy, or is Ellen truly unhinged? 

Robert Ryan questions Vivian Vance

Although there are some holes in the plot -- the whole logistics of the murder, for instance -- The Secret Fury proceeds at a fairly swift pace and maintains suspense for its entire length. You'll find yourself being suspicious of virtually everyone in the picture. The acting can't be faulted. Although Ryan has the less showy role of the two stars, he never reveals too much nor too little about David. Colbert is excellent, particularly in a courtroom sequence when she has a positive meltdown (and gives Doris Day of Midnight Lace a run for her money!) Paul Kelly is wonderful as a former flame of Ellen's, although it is highly unlikely that he would be the prosecutor on the case. Philip Ober is given one of his all-time best roles as Ellen's defense attorney and friend, and his then-wife Vivian Vance makes an impression as a maid who swears that she met Ellen and her husband, the aforementioned Randall, before. (The following year Vance wound up as Ethel on I Love Lucy.) Jane Cowl is also excellent as the aunt who hardly seems like she's that much on her niece's side. Percy Helton, Paul Picerni and Elisabeth Risdon also make an impression in smaller roles. This is one of ten or so films directed by actor Mel Ferrer; his work on this is efficient enough if hardly Hitchcock level. Jose Ferrer (no relation to Mel) has a small role in the film as a wedding guest. 

Verdict: Very suspenseful thriller with some excellent performances. ***. 

NO MAN OF HER OWN

NO MAN OF HER OWN (1950). Director:Mitchell Leisen.

Based on Cornell Woolrich's novel "I Married a Dead Man" this stars Barbara Stanwyck as Helen Ferguson, who is pregnant and abandoned by her faithless lover Steve (Lyle Bettger). She meets a lovely young newlywed couple (Richard Denning and Phyllis Thaxter) on a train, but after a train crash finds herself a victim -- or lucky recipient -- of mistaken identity. Taken in by a family who thinks she's someone else, she wonders how long she can pull off the deception. She falls for Bill Harkness (John Lund) and then the scummy Steve shows up ... This is not the great suspense film it might have been had Hitchcock been at the helm, but it is quite entertaining and full of interesting twists courtesy of Woolrich. Stanwyck gives yet another terrific performance, and there is a solid supporting cast, including Jane Cowl as Bill's mother. Leisen doesn't do that much with the more tense sequences in the film and Lund is only adequate, but Stanwyck's performance puts this over if nothing else. The novel was adapted on other occasions, being the basis for a French version and the much lighter Mrs. Winterbourne with Ricki Lake. I believe there was also another American version under a different title.

Verdict: Another example of Stanwyck's superb thespian ability. ***.

PAYMENT ON DEMAND

PAYMENT ON DEMAND (1951). Director: Curtis Bernhardt.

"When a woman starts getting old, time can be an avalanche, and loneliness a disaster."

Released after All About Eve, but made just before that film was shot, Payment on Demand has long been considered the "lost" Bette Davis film, although it has been shown on TCM (albeit not recently). Joyce Ramsey (Bette Davis) thinks she runs the perfect household for her husband David (Barry Sullivan) and two daughters, but one day David tells her they've been out of love for years and he wants a divorce. Flashbacks then show how they met, courted, fell in love, and the gradual reasons for their marital disintegration. When the film first begins, Davis' acting is so broad and affected, her line readings so bizarre, that initially you think this is going to be another of her terrible latter-day performances, but there's method to her madness. Davis is fine in the flashbacks when she's playing a much younger woman. Her affected acting in the modern scenes is to give the audience a clue as to why David fell out of love with her. She's become something he can't stand, a callous snob, and her weird delivery of lines in the opening scene makes it clear that she's also so self-absorbed that she really isn't listening to anything anyone says to her -- hence her listless, if arch, replies. One of the best scenes has the now-divorced Joyce encountering an old friend Emily (Jane Cowl), who's taken up with a much-younger gigolo and delivers the line highlighted above. At one point David says "Loneliness is a general feeling of not being part of everything that exists." One of the problems with the marriage is that Joyce feels absolutely no real guilt for sort of stabbing David's business partner Robert (Kent Taylor, whom I didn't recognize without his mustache) in the back. Since this hasn't changed by the end of the film, one can't realistically imagine that she's changed enough for David to want to take her back. Natalie Schafer, Otto Kruger, Peggie Castle, Frances Dee, Richard Anderson and Betty Lynn are also in the cast.

Verdict: A bit dated but often quite arresting. ***.