They Won't Believe Me (1947)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

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:

Trial | Murder | Car Crash | Flashback | Suicide

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.

Cautionary advice on the re-release version..

Great performances from the four leads make this noirish melodrama a stand-out. Cast against type, Robert Young gives one of his finest performances (far more interesting than that in Crossfire), subtly giving his role of philandering but strangely sympathetic heel a depth which may perhaps go by unnoticed by some. Rita Johnson, in the minimal screen time alloted her, is likewise able to intimate complexities of character which imbue her role of manipulative wife with a touching frailty.

The shortened re-release version (which I viewed in a colourized copy) has been cleverly edited to leave the plot intact, but with 15 minutes of cuts significant elements of character development (all-important in a film of this type) have been sacrificed. The deletion of part of the scene at Nicks dilutes the initial warmth of the relationship between the Young and Jane Greer characters. And a concert scene which shows up the petulant nature of the Susan Hayward character has been deleted altogether. Other elements deleted from the re-release print are some of the opening remarks made by Frank Ferguson, and some dialogue between Young and Hayward when they are in his car on the way to her apartment.