Bedelia

Ian Hunter is honeymooning on the Riviera with Margaret Lockwood. She doesn't like having her picture taken, and thinks no artist can draw her, but Hunter strikes up a friendship with artist Barry K. Barnes and persuades Miss Lockwood to sit for him. She begins to act odd, and they Return to Britain with the picture unfinished. Barnes shows up with a painting by her first husband; Hunter wants one for his wife, who has none. The reason is that Barnes is not an artist, but a private detective and Miss Lockwood is.... an, well that's the point of this weird and sad little picture.

It's from a story by Vera Caspary, so you know it's going to be about people behaving weirdly, and their motivation slowly being revealed. Director Lance Comfort directs it with a shadowy air. He had been a sound technician and special effects cameraman before he began to direct the prestigious but dull THE COURAGEOUS MR. PENN. His work after that was erratic: an Old Mother Riley picture here, a crime picture there. Clearly he was a director with ambition, but he rarely got the chance to work with a top cast and crew. When he did, as here, he got a good movie, but it's hard to say if he added anything to it. He worked through his death in 1966, aged 58

What a treat to buy this old movie from a rare US dealer to add to my Margaret Lockwood (ML) collection.I was in doubt if I would ever find a copy after many days of fruitless research as it is not sold by mainstream video/DVD dealers, never appears on eBay nor is it shown on UK TV networks.In fact the film only seemed to be shown by exclusive cinema clubs.I have a fascination for film noirs made in the year of my birth, i.e. 1946.Barry K Barnes was on her side to defend her as a barrister in "The Girl in the News"(1940) when ML played nurse Graham wrongly accused of murdering her employer.Here in "Bedelia" he plays an insurance investigator who adopts the persona of an artist when under cover, investigating deaths by poison of Bedelia's previous husbands.In "Bedelia" he is out to get her.

Ian Hunter as Charlie Carrington had the good fortune to play opposite Hedy Lamarr in "Come Live With Me" (1941) and here co-stars with ML, another sultry, raven haired beauty.If film fans can visualise Lady Skelton (ML's most famous role) from "The Wicked Lady" (1945) transported from the late 17th century to 1946; this is how she would behave!!It was good to see Anne Crawford again.I have her in my collection in "They Were Sisters" and "Millions Like Us" both from 1943.She tragically died quite young per IMDb's biography.I thought the Vera Caspary story, originally set in Connecticut in 1913, was easily transplanted to Europe in a contemporary setting.It gave ML the chance to wear some attractive costumes.I thought the user rating low at 5.7 and have rated it 7/10 to give it a bit of an uplift.

If any of you can find a copy of this rare film, it will be well worth the effort.

A brilliant story with a fast and pregnant dialogue all along, presents the fascinating case of a double-faced woman, the other face of which is well hidden behind a mask of superb charm and beauty - it's impossible to believe anything else but the best of her; but a nosy insurance investigator, not at all sympathetic but rather callous and rude in his constant meddling into the business of a happily and recently married couple, finds out more and more unpleasant things no one really wants to know, not even himself. Alas, it all leads to more unpleasantness.

Margaret Lockwood is as usual quite reliable and convincing in not a too glamorous part, Ian Hunter makes the perfect husband and reacts as anyone would in such an awkward situation, intrepidly handling the crisis with an admirable effort at controlling himself, while Barry K. Barnes carries through the difficult task of making a graceless character acceptable for his uneasy plight. Anne Crawford is a delightful surprise as another beauty, who after all remains when all the lights are gone. This is not clearly expressed in the film, but it should not be forgotten.

To this comes the interesting detail of the black pearl, which somehow symbolizes the whole story. She wants to get rid of it but refuses to sell it for a fortune, when asked for it she denies she still has it, and then it returns to bring about her doom. It should be noted that the author also was guilty of "Laura".

It's not a great or ambitious film but well above the average of so many other similar secondary melodramas.

A fine thriller based on a Vera "Laura" Caspary's book ,Lance Comfort ,like in "daughter of darkness " draws the portrait of a disturbing woman ,masterfully played by Margaret Lockwood.Butter would not melt in her mouth ,but little by little clues are given to the viewer who understands she might be a female Blue Beard .

Like Du Maurier's "Rebecca ", the story begins in the south of France: and it's to the screenwriter's credit to have used many lines in perfect French at a time when they did not care for the languages ;funny how the receptionist in the hotel tells a guest that there's no vacancy in French with an English accent!

A well-crafted thriller , with good performances ,and good scenes (the Christmas fete ,notably) ,some of which verge on comedy (those with the nurse).

This is quite a well-written, pacy little film noir about a glamorous widow (Margaret Lockwood) who meets and marries a rather naive English businessman (Ian Hunter) and honeymoons in Monte Carlo. There, they befriend a painter (Barry K. Barnes) who is asked to paint her portrait. After they return home, we gradually discover that she has plenty of dark secrets which all start to unravel as we find the painter is not exactly whom he claims to be, and it all culminates in a tense and suspenseful twenty minutes at their remote country home during a snowstorm. It's a little melodramatic at times, but the story flows well and the lead performances are engaging.