Humphrey Bogart stars as Geoffrey Carroll, a painter who begins the film wooing Sally Morton (Barbara Stanwyck) while hiding from her that he is still married. When she finds out, he lies and tells her that he is in the process of leaving his wife who, by his account, is an invalid. He also reveals that he has a daughter, Bea (Ann Carter). Sally wants nothing to do with all this and leaves him. Shortly thereafter Geoffrey’s wife dies from a mysterious illness and in short order Geoffrey and Sally get married after all.
Through a friend of Sally’s, Geoffrey is introduced to Cecile Latham (Alexis Smith), a wealthy woman who has set her eyes on him under the pretense of commissioning him to paint her portrait. What she really has in mind in to get between the couple and take Geoffrey for her own. Geoffrey is hesitant at first but eventually agrees to the job. Shortly thereafter, Sally starts getting sick much the same way the original Mrs. Carroll did.
Reportedly Bogart didn’t want to be here making this film. During the production he and Lauren Bacall were married, shutting down the filming while they went off on their honeymoon. Whether this event effected his performance or not can be debated but he does come across as being not totally committed to the role. There are times where he looks like he would rather be somewhere else than on this set. Even when the moment calls for him to portray intensity he is not very convincing. While some of his most intense performances were still in the future, most notably The Treasure of the Sierra Madre the following year, he had demonstrated in the past that he was capable of playing dark as well as charming. Here, he is stiff and unconvincing, obviously acting rather than being convincing in the part. This is reminiscent of his performance in Conflict, a similar film from two years earlier that he also didn’t want to appear in.
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Not all of the blame for this film falls on Bogart’s shoulders though. Barbara Stanwyck is equally poor in a role she allegedly took out of sheer boredom. In the early scenes she is entirely too chipper. Later on, as her suspicions of her husband deepen, she descends into overacting and some of the most outrageously hilarious voice over ever put on screen. Whether you blame her for this or shift that blame to Peter Godfrey, the director, for staging it that way as well as not reigning in his actor, it amounts to the same, an over-the-top performance that is disjointed and laughably bad.
The rest of the cast is game, yet amount to mere caricatures. Nigel Bruce is perhaps the worst of these as Dr. Tuttle, an alcoholic physician whose boisterousness is only eclipsed by his ineptitude. Alexis Smith is a generic gold digger/home wrecker with the only distinction being she is the one with the gold. The only true standout amongst the secondary cast is young Ann Carreras playing the daughter, Beatrice Carroll. Ann made a career out of playing characters like this and she is fantastic here, livening up every scene she is in. Without her this film would be nearly unwatchable.
This film is an oddity in Humphrey Bogarts latter career, a film that’s frustrating to watch unfold and offers nothing worth sitting through. It’s clear neither of the two leads really cares to give any real effort into compelling performances and if they don’t care, why should we. Even without the knowledge of what was going on behind the scenes it is evident that not all was right with the production. Nearly everything is just a little off. One needs only look to Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux, a film with a very similar premise, to see how this kind of demented premise could be pulled off. It also shows what an actor, determined to elevate a film, can accomplish with an otherwise mediocre script.
This was never going to be a great film. It’s roots are as generic and cliché as the final product. The greatest performers would struggle to make this a good film and, as mentioned above, it had some of the greatest performers in it. But those performers need to actually be trying to do that and that is not what we have here. It is a B film filled with A-list actors and actresses. At best it is a generic thriller on par with Conflict. At worst, it is a completely forgettable film best swept under the rug.
Release Date: March 4, 1947
Running Time: 99 Minutes
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith, Nigel Bruce, and Ann Carter
Directed By: Peter Godfrey
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