Nicholas Ray's film noir with Joan Fontaine as a ruthless schemer

robert-temple-1

This is an important film noir in the Nicholas Ray canon. He made it just after his classic IN A LONELY PLACE (1950, see my review), in the same year. Joan Fontaine plays a narcissistic schemer who steals another woman's man, marrying him for his money, but still wants to keep her lover on the side, played by Robert Ryan. The film is based on a novel by Anne Parrish called ALL KNEELING, and has no connection whatever with the film BORN TO BE BAD of 1934, starring Cary Grant and Loretta Young. Joan Leslie plays Donna, the pleasant, smiling young woman who is in love with Zachary Scott. The unscrupulous, smiling, ingratiating Fontaine (whose sweetness is completely false) steals Scott's affections, breaking Leslie's heart. Scott is very wealthy and for a while Fontaine thinks she has pulled off something wonderful, but she soon admits to being unhappy and turns back to her former lover, Robert Ryan. Ryan is magnificent in his part. Nicholas Ray makes the film much more effective than it might have been by inserting lingering close-ups of the faces of Fontaine and of Ryan at key moments in the film (watch for them, they are classic shots), where the hidden emotions of the characters are revealed when nobody is looking at them. Fontaine's gloating expressions and smiles of triumph to herself are particularly revealing. This was Ray's clever visual substitute for the voice over interior monologue, and frankly it is a marvellously sophisticated and successful device. Young aspiring film makers should all study that particular technique, which has rarely been surpassed from what we see here. Words are not always necessary when you have actors as brilliant as Ryan and Fontaine who 'get' it and are not afraid to show it. Ryan's facial close-up in the latter part of the film when he suddenly realizes something disturbing about Fontaine during an amorous encounter with her is, frankly, a terrifying emotional moment. Mel Ferrer plays a supporting role, but he is rather annoying and does not do a particularly good job. However, it is easy to ignore him and concentrate on the main story and characters. This film is not a comfortable or pleasant one, as Fontaine's character is so disturbing. It is remarkably similar to the character of Eve played by Anne Baxter in ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) in the very same year. I do not know the relative production dates of the two films, but I wonder if one of the actresses could have influenced the other. Anne Baxter's schemer is the more powerful and subtle of the two. For people interested in film noir, this is one of the numerous 'must-sees'.

score 8/10

robert-temple-1 21 August 2014

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3072890/