They Won't Believe Me (1947)

Director:

Irving Pichel

Writers:

Jonathan Latimer (screenplay)
Gordon McDonell (story)

Release Date:

16 July 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Film-Noir | Drama

Tagline:

The way SHE loved a Man could lead in only one direction - DOWN!

Plot:

On trial for murder, Larry Ballantyne regurgitates an unbelievable story. He recounts how he philanders...

Plot Keywords:

Car Crash | Murder | Trial | Adultery | Mistaken Identity

Cast

Susan Hayward	...	Verna Carlson
Robert Young	...	Larry Ballentine
Jane Greer	...	Janice Bell
Rita Johnson	...	Greta Ballentine
Tom Powers	...	Trenton
George Tyne	...	Lieutenant Carr
Don Beddoe	...	Thomason
Frank Ferguson	...	Mr. Cahill, Defense Attorney
Harry Harvey	...	Judge Charles Fletcher

Runtime:

95 min | USA:80 min (re-release)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #11890)

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Verna mispronounces the hero's address as Bendedict's Canyon - in reality, a well-known wealthy Los Angeles community really called Benedict (no possessive) Canyon.

Quotes:

Larry Ballentine: She looked like a very special kind of dynamite, neatly wrapped in nylon and silk. Only I wasn't having any. I'd been too close to one explosion already. I was powder shy.

A pulpy mix of melodrama, noir and crime drama

Larry Ballentine is on trial and isn't helped by the fact that his unshaven defence lawyer isn't risking cross-examining the witnesses because their statements have built such a strong case against his client. Ballentine's main hope is that he can take the stand and convince the jury that he is innocent of his crime. He tells the story of how he met Vernia and how they fell in love, only for him to be trapped between the two women in two relationships and the lack of courage to go one way or the other.

A nicely tough little film that twists a relationship drama with a pulpy thriller to produce a film that doesn't always work but just has enough of a hook to it to hold me from start to finish. For the majority of the film we are following Ballentine as he fails to do anything with his life other than be a real low-life in how he treats the women in his life, however we also have the ongoing hook of the court case to keep us interested in where it is going. In both these threads the film works reasonably well and, despite being a bit melodramatic, is generally a good pulpy drama with nice use of guns and interesting (if obvious) references to drug use (heroin – the horse with the taste for sugar). It gets tougher as it goes along and our "hero" gets in deeper and deeper to the point where the "perfect crime" appears a possibility (had he never seen this genre before!). It is a generally good plot and I liked it although I could see why the mix of relationships, court cases and crime would not sit so easy for most viewers.

The cast are pretty good. Although the main character Young is given second billing to a delicious performance from Hayward who plays her character really well. Young is also good though, playing his character smart enough to try and get out of his situation but also weak enough to get into it. Support from Greer, Johnson and a few others do well to fill out the cast. Pichel's direction has some good atmosphere when required but is mostly just solid and standard for the genre, although the general delivery of the story is good and well put together.

Overall a solid pulpy drama that touches on noir and melodrama at different stages. The mix works well and I enjoyed the story, the characters and the acting. I did think that the court case frame could have been used better to inject more of a sense of doom to it and the ending was a bit "fair" due to the period pressures but still I enjoyed it and found it interesting.