Deception (1946)

Director:

Irving Rapper

Writers:

John Collier (writer)
Joseph Than (writer)

Release Date:

18 October 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

Tagline:

THE STAR OF 'STOLEN LIFE' STEALS ANOTHER LIFE! (original ad - all caps)

Plot:

Music teacher Christine Radcliffe thought Karel Novak to have been killed in the war. She loves him more than ever and insists they marry...

Plot Keywords:

Cello Concerto | Lover | Music Teacher | Love Triangle | Source Music

Cast

Bette Davis	...	Christine Radcliffe
Paul Henreid	...	Karel Novak
Claude Rains	...	Alexander Hollenius
John Abbott	...	Bertram Gribble
Benson Fong	...	Jimmy, Hollenius' Servant

Also Known As:

Her Conscience (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | USA:Approved (PCA #11772, Adult Audience)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Paul Henreid's cello-playing was dubbed by Eleanor Aller (Mrs Felix Slatkin) while she was pregnant with Frederic Zlotkin. Her father, Gregory Aller, coached Henreid in plausible bow movements.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the end of the film, after Karel Novak has played the Hollenius Cello Concerto and is receiving an ovation, as he acknowledges the applause, his cello mysteriously appears and disappears. In the close ups as he takes his bow, he has it, but when the camera cuts to him in long shot, it is missing.

Quotes:

Alexander Hollenius: [snatches his bleeding hand away from Christine Radcliffe] Like all women: white as a sheet at the sight of a couple of scratches... but calm and smiling as a hospital nurse in the presence of a mortal wound... Good night!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Between Two Worlds: Erich Wolfgang Korngold (2001) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Bridal Chorus

Defines the meaning of "overripe"!

On a recent Turner Classic Movies broadcast, I finally caught up with all of this one, having seen only snippets of it before. Everybody involved was obviously given free rein, from the lead actors all the way through to every behind-the-scenes artisan, the best that Warner Brothers could muster at the time. Claude Rains and Bette Davis spar in magnificent style, with Rains, stroking the fur of his pet Siamese cat, winning by default, since he was given a role which is so over-the-top that, in the hands of a lesser actor, it would have verged on outrageous camp. (Check out the rococo New York brownstone mansion in which he's ensconced, more magnificent than anything a lesser studio could provide for a monarch in a story involving royalty!)

Poor Paul Henreid has a particularly thankless role to play, swinging like an erratic pendulum between jealous tantrums and thoroughly deceived naïveté, but his simulations of the movements of a top-flight cello musician are convincing enough to allow all to be forgiven.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold's music is probably the film's chief asset and it probably sounded superb over the monophonic sound systems when this film was released, since Warners' sound technicians were the best in Hollywood back then. (Unfortunately the soundtrack during the telecast I heard was very wobbly - a real disappointment. Wonder what the problem was, since this certainly isn't the case with many films dating even further into the past.)

While it may not be a delicacy fit for a cinematic gourmet, it's more than passably entertaining for its nearly two-hours running time.