With all the positive spin put on this flick by the reviewers on this board I felt I might have missed something. But I think not. There have been film attempts by husbands to drive their wives crazy (1940's "Gaslight" and 1958's "The Screaming Skull"), but here you actually have a crazy husband (Barry Sullivan) trying to implicate his wife (Loretta Young) and personal physician (Bruce Cowling) with an illicit love affair. Something interesting could have been made with this concept, but once old George spills his guts to Ellen about the letter to the DA, the whole thing starts to unravel.
Seriously, the guy was a basket case. All the good Doc would have to have done is put George in the hospital for observation and kept a set of notes. Having wife Ellen go apoplectic over retrieving the letter from the postman on the beat struck me as one of the prime examples of government bureaucracy gone completely out of control. COME ON - this was 1950's small time America. You can cite all the regulations you want, but do you actually believe the mail carrier you know by name wouldn't hand you back a letter you gave him just a few minutes ago? This postman was unbelievable, I mean, WHO WOULD KNOW if he handed her the letter back? The guy carried on like he would be off to the federal penitentiary. This was made even more hysterical later on with the supervisor who wanted all manner of forms and signatures filled out.
But poor old Ellen, she just kept digging her hole deeper and deeper as the story went on. Like trying to pry the gun from George's cold, dead hand. What??? Now her fingerprints are on it, and the gun has been fired! Her goose would really have been cooked if the bullet hit George in the head. Wouldn't that have been something? Even Dr. Grahame would have been running for cover by that time.
You know what had me more amused? The little kid on the bike in the Hoppy outfit. I thought with some certainty that that was Alfalfa from the Little Rascals until I realized the math on his age couldn't have worked. Then who shows up later? Alfalfa Switzer himself helping his buddy fool with the hot rod. How does that work?
Look, I don't want to bad mouth the film too seriously. Loretta Young does a competent job with a loser of a script. But there are an inordinate amount of viewers here calling the picture film noir, and that it certainly is not. This one might better be classified under the heading of Postage Due.
Seriously, the guy was a basket case. All the good Doc would have to have done is put George in the hospital for observation and kept a set of notes. Having wife Ellen go apoplectic over retrieving the letter from the postman on the beat struck me as one of the prime examples of government bureaucracy gone completely out of control. COME ON - this was 1950's small time America. You can cite all the regulations you want, but do you actually believe the mail carrier you know by name wouldn't hand you back a letter you gave him just a few minutes ago? This postman was unbelievable, I mean, WHO WOULD KNOW if he handed her the letter back? The guy carried on like he would be off to the federal penitentiary. This was made even more hysterical later on with the supervisor who wanted all manner of forms and signatures filled out.
But poor old Ellen, she just kept digging her hole deeper and deeper as the story went on. Like trying to pry the gun from George's cold, dead hand. What??? Now her fingerprints are on it, and the gun has been fired! Her goose would really have been cooked if the bullet hit George in the head. Wouldn't that have been something? Even Dr. Grahame would have been running for cover by that time.
You know what had me more amused? The little kid on the bike in the Hoppy outfit. I thought with some certainty that that was Alfalfa from the Little Rascals until I realized the math on his age couldn't have worked. Then who shows up later? Alfalfa Switzer himself helping his buddy fool with the hot rod. How does that work?
Look, I don't want to bad mouth the film too seriously. Loretta Young does a competent job with a loser of a script. But there are an inordinate amount of viewers here calling the picture film noir, and that it certainly is not. This one might better be classified under the heading of Postage Due.