MICHAEL GORDON
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BB.
USA, 1960. Ross Hunter Productions Inc.. Screenplay by Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts, based on their play. Cinematography by Russell Metty. Produced by Ross Hunter. Music by Frank Skinner. Production Design by Richard H. Riedel. Costume Design by Jean Louis. Film Editing by Milton Carruth.
Campy Ross Hunter soap opera, one of those melodramas where housewives put gorgeous gowns on in the morning for breakfast. Lana Turner is hilariously overripe as an unhappy second wife to a crotchety industrialist (Lloyd Nolan) who is unaware that she is in love with his doctor (Anthony Quinn). She and Quinn conspire to kill her husband in order to be together, but after they pull off what appears to be the perfect murder, they start getting mysterious letters in the mail from someone claiming to know what they’ve done. Their suspicions for who is taunting them lead them to everyone in their world, from colleagues to servants, as they work their way towards what turns out to be an insipid finale in a film that is only for those who love watching the glamorous plasticity of 1950s Hollywood. Features the great Anna May Wong in one of her last performances.
