User reviews

The problems that may be inherent in the story were made worse because the then-still-somewhat-powerful arbiters of censorship gave the film a rough time. The objection, I would assume, resulted from the fact that the Laraine Day character is allowed to live and not 'pay for her almost-fatal-act-of-murder'. Day didn't always get a chance to grab the parts that lead to awards, but she is more than good in this one. Sorry to contradict one of the earlier writers on the piece, but the worst acting in the film, and the only truly awful performance, is the one by Agnes Moorehead, wearing an outfit that could have come from Ed Wood. This is far from an unwatchable film... it does have suspense...and the ending is surprising in denouement. It is forgotten, I admit, but this film did earn considerable attention in the news regarding its producers' fights to get it released without disastrous cuts. Thus, a moment in the censorship issues that were finally blasted apart by people like Otto Preminger.

What an odd picture. An Overwrought Melodrama with a capital O and a capital M this breaks out of the starting gate hitting high C and continues at a fevered pitch right up to its conclusion.

Unhappy Laraine stabs caddish Franchot by accident then rambles hysterically while the callously odious Dane Clark circles around making her life hell. The one beacon of restraint in the entire enterprise is Agnes Moorehead who shows up none too soon and steals the picture with a controlled and dignified performance while all around her her cast-mates are swallowing scenery whole.

Watch carefully. Lorraine Day has very few lines in this movie. She did most of her acting by facial expressions responding to the other actor's long monologues (Clark & Moorehead). Pichel got the best out her.

Yikes!! Where does one begin? I bought the new DVD of this movie, just watched it, and now have chosen it as the worst film I've ever seen, with all due respects to former title holder Ed Wood. In fact, this movie has about the same level of production artistry and skill of a typical Wood epic. It's truly amazing. A pure fiasco on every level! Especially story and acting, with the sole exception of the unsinkable Agnes Moorehead who couldn't give a bad performance if they tied her up and gave her sleeping pills.

Ironically, I've waited years to finally see this film. A great admirer and fan of the incomparable classic film composer Max Steiner, I found that this was one of his few films that I was never able to see. I was always curious why he was loaned out from WB to score this minor forgotten film when he was at the zenith of his power and popularity in 1949 - having just composed for "Johnny Belinda", "Key Largo", "Treasure of Sierra Madre", "The Fountainhead", and "Don Juan" - all scores which entered film history.

Why did he go score this meager independent effort? I suspect that the director was a good friend of his and after the film was put together everyone saw what a disaster it was and believed that Steiner could achieve a true miracle and save the movie by putting his glorious music to this awful mess.

I never thought I'd ever admit this, but Steiner's score absolutely destroys the film. Perhaps after paying his astronomical loan-out fee from Warners, the producers insisted on getting their money's worth with a wall-to-wall thundering score. I'd hate to think it was Max's choice. But this film desperately needed just an ounce of subtle music here and there to make it more realistic and believable - and Steiner unfortunately scores it like a Wagnerian opera. I came across the sound track years ago and it was one of my favorites - vibrant, melodic, passionate epic music. At the time I had no idea what the plot of the film was and could only conjure the most epic images of car chases, train crashes, exotic locales - possibly a trip to Chinatown. When I finally read that the whole thing takes place in a bungalow in the San Fernando Valley I couldn't believe it. And watching the movie I was horrified to see that the surging, thunderous, throbbing passages that I thought was probably a thrilling chase culminating in a spectacular train crash was simply Laraine Day walking into her bedroom and sitting down at her vanity table and putting on lipstick! Poor Max! Poor movie! A dull, nothing plot. One tired cliché after another. Ridiculously motivated characters, acting badly as they chew up the drab scenery. Just a preposterous mess that can't be explained. Top talent all around. First-rate director, acclaimed writer, filmdom's greatest composer, a photographer (Lionel Lindon) who had shot some of Paramount's finest hits and would a few years later cap his career with an Oscar for Mike Todd's "Around the World in Eighty Days" - and this ultra cheap, crummy-looking movie is the result. A true aberation and unique disaster of film-making history. See this with a friend - you'l laugh yourselves sick.

Without Honor is directed by Irving Pichel and written by James Pope. It stars Dane Clark, Laraine Day, Franchot Tone and Agnes Moorehead. Music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by Lionel Lindon.

A mixed bag on offer in this one, where a broth of "sins" is stirred suitably in predominantly one location. Set-up bares a striking resemblance to Hitchcock's Rope released the previous year, where a group of characters are thrust together in one living room deconstructing their sins, shattered dreams and ulterior motives - all while a supposed dead body lays prone in one of the bedrooms.

The thematics at work are prime film noir, adultery, suicide attempt, sexual aggression, jealous agenda, duping and etc, all of which only comes to life half way through the piece. Here in is the problem, the pic asks for a lot of patience from the viewer before really getting going, which although the character group dynamic is pungent with an unsavoury odour, it never fully gets out of first gear.

Things aren't helped by the flat visual look of the piece, where with the story set in daytime, we yearn for a bit of noir flourish from one of the ace noir photographers of the time. Then there's Steiner's score, which is a cracker, ebullience in abundance, only it's in the wrong film! Moorehead is wasted in what is ultimately a walk on passive role, but at least Clark and Day nail the traits of their respective characters.

No hidden gem here, and noir hunters should be advised this is only noir from a plot perspective, but enough damaged human conditioning here to make it above average. 6.5/10

I usually refrain from commenting on films because there are so many other reviewers out there...but seeing how this just has one review and a very negative, I felt I should offer my opinion.

I'll admit the first 20 or 30 minutes felt like a typical Hollywood pot-boiler. Cheating wife accidentally kills lover; will she get away with it; etc. After this set-up, the film becomes an onion - revealing new layers of characters' motivations and back-story.

Laraine Day stands out superbly as the cheating wife...whole scenes develop around her without her speaking, yet we know what's going on in her mind.

I have to agree with the other reviewer that I loved Steiner's score...but did feel it inappropriate at times. The performances on screen are very subtle and the music is anything but subtle.

I particularly enjoyed the second half of the film as characters acted against stereotypes.

The DVD I watched was from Geneon and featured an adequate transfer; not stellar, but much above average from the usual run-of-the-mill public domain stuff.

Franchot Tone, him married to Agnes Moorehead and Laraine Day, her married to Bruce Bennett have been carrying on an affair, but Tone comes over to Day's house while Bennett's away and says time to end it. Bennett's a dull sort and Day doesn't want things to end. She gets positively hysterical and remains so the rest of the film with the events that follow. Quite a bit does follow.

Manipulating all that is going on is Dane Clark who is Bennett's brother and it's positively Iago like the way he controls all around him. This might have been Dane Clark's best moment on the big screen as it is Laraine Day's.

If this is ever remade and maybe it should be, it will be a great example about how the Code could nearly ruin a story. The censorship was such that so much was left out in the telling.

Still a nice piece of melodrama.

Without Honor is a 1949 film directed by Irving Pichel and starring Laraine Day as an adulterous housewife in the Los Angeles burbs who has a sort of intervention conducted by her psychotic brother-in-law (Dane Clark) because he's getting even for spurning him and marrying his brother years before.

He arranges for Day and his brother (Bruce Bennett) to be home when Day's lover (Franchot Tone) and his wife (Agnes Moorehead) drop by so he can expose her and get his revenge. Just another sunny day in the burbs.

What Clark doesn't know is that earlier that afternoon Day and Tone had a big fight and break-up and when Day tried to kill herself with a shish-kabob skewer he accidentally fell on it while wrestling it away from her and stabbed himself to death. He's in the laundry room on the floor.

When Clark arrives, he taunts Day, who is about to skip out in a taxi. He goes on and on about how she got him drunk on beers when he was 18 and he made a fool of himself and he's never gotten over it. Day has other things on her mind. Moorehead shows up with no idea why she's there. Bennett comes home from work. Tone is a no-show.

Moorehead has a chat with Day and tells her she knows all about it ... and all his previous dalliances. Bennett pitches a fit, so Day runs into the bathroom and tries to slice her wrists with a razor blade. They call an ambulance but by then they discover that Tone isn't in the laundry room. Keep that ambulance a-comin'.

Everyone in the cast is quite good even if the film is a tad over-the-top. Certainly an interesting post-war take on placid suburbia. Gorgeous cars! Tone drives a 1948 Studebaker convertible and Moorehead drives a 1948 Packard sedan.

Wild film.

Laraine Day as Jane is cheating on her husband (Bruce Bennett) with Franchot Tone. However, he breaks up with her, and during a struggle, she kills him.

While he is dead in another room, her brother-in-law (Dane Clark) shows up. He wanted her at one point, but she rejected him.

So he has called a revenge meeting, inviting the dead man's wife and the dead man himself, not realizing it a bit late for that, planning to surprise his brother with the news that his wife is a cheat.

Given that the man is dead, there are other surprises in store.

Laraine Day, understandably, plays a totally wired and half-hysterical woman. She does a good job, but the film feels off balance and frantic. Dane Clark's character clearly has a screw loose.

I would call this an odd film. And how much did they pay Franchot Tone to spend all that time on the floor?

This Odd Film is Loaded with Edgy Entertainment that Challenged Censors.

In this Downbeat Norish Drama it Confronts Head-On... Adultery, Murder, Suicide, and a Bi-Sexual Incestuous Obsession.

The Wordy Script Takes Place in One Location in a Few Rooms.

With Loraine Day Giving a Difficult Almost Wordless Performance.

The Writing is Sharp and the Performances are Top B-Movie Gold.

The Film's Downfall, if it has one, is the Constant Verbiage and Run-On Dialog by Dane Clark.

It is the Antithesis of Day's Silent Portrayal.

Clark's Constant Jabbering is a Dated, Nervous, Non-Stop Accosting of His Brother's (Bruce Bennett) Wife and His Brother.

He Reveals an Unhealthy Attachment to His Sibling.

Also an Equal Hatred for and Jealousy of Loraine Day.

His Actions are Loathsome and Neurotic.

With Relentless Force and those Dated Antics may be Difficult for some Viewers to Watch.

Along with Bennett, Agnes Moorehead, in a Minor but Crucial Role is Outstanding, but so is the Entire Cast.

Underlined by Max Steiner's Striking Score and a Plot Twist or Two.

The Ensemble Production Manages to Compel the Overloaded Story. And Bring it Together for a Strange and Unique Viewing Experience, Especially in 1949.

Above Average and Certainly...

Worth a Watch.

This little B-Movie, clocking in at a very economical 69 minutes, could easily have been an episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" with some top-notch guest stars, one of whom gets dispatched in the first ten minutes and he's the biggest name in the picture. The ridiculous plot hardly bears thinking about and yet it's that very plot that makes this so interesting. Laraine Day is the adulterous wife who accidentally stabs her lover but that's only the beginning of her troubles. While her lover lies conveniently in the box-room her snake of a brother-in-law, her lover's wife and her husband all gather in the sitting room; yep, it's mostly all done on the one set. It gets progressively sillier as it goes along but the very game cast, that includes Franchot Tone, Dane Clark and Agnes Moorehead, add a welcome touch of class, (Moorehead's terrific). It may not be in the same c;lass as something like "Detour" but it's still so much better than a lot of big studio productions of the time.

The general plot to "Without Honor" is pretty good. But I found myself unable to love or even like the film due to some bad acting and a director who helped elicit some bizarre performances...particularly (but certainly not exclusively) Laraine Day's.

The story begins with Jane (Day) meeting with her lover, Dennis (Franchot Tone). He's there to announce that their affair is over...he's staying with his wife and she should stay with her husband. However, during their argument, they get into a tussle and he's accidentally stabbed with a fork. While he's lying dying on the laundry room floor, she's in a panicked state for pretty much the entire rest of the film.

Soon, Jane's brother-in-law, Bill (Dane Clark) arrives. He apparently hates her guts and has spent years looking to get revenge on her....and he now knows she's an adultress after paying a private eye to follow her. And, he's now there to meet with her, her lover, his wife and Jane's husband (his brother). During this time, Jane continues to do pretty much nothing other than look scared or constipated...not sure which. Of course, Jane does NOT expect Dennis to come walking through the door, as he's apparently dead in the laundry room.

When the wronged wife (Agnes MoOrehead) arrives, her reaction is just plain bizarre. She accepts that her husband is a philanderer and he's apparently done this before...that isn't the surprising part. What is surprising and hard to believe is how nice she is towards Jane....really TOO nice to be realistic. She's almost motherly towards Jane...which makes no sense. What also doesn't make sense is why Jane STILL seems lost in a fog. Sure, she is traumatized, but her reactions throughout the film just seem weird and unrealistic...just like the wronged wife. What's next? Well, the husband arrives home...and there's, of course, a twist.

The twist, though difficult to believe, didn't bother me....what really did, and why I am rating this one only a 4 is that the acting by Day and Moorehead seemed poor...and the writing and direction all contribute to it. Watchable but it should have been much better...and there are many great parts to the plot.

Mighty dramatic goings-on surrounding an "inappropriate relationship", with a side of the brother-in-law always running his mouth. Some parts were unintentionally funny, invoking thoughts of a Carol Burnett parody waiting to made: like Laraine Day running wildly in the street, being accidentally sprayed with water, falling down and missing the bus by a moment. Mostly she is suspiciously silent (using her very pretty and expressive features to do the acting), wandering back and forth in a daze. She should have been given more lines, if only to relieve us of the sound of Dane Clark's voice. Plot misstep: if she loved Tone so much, why didn't she try to get him immediate medical help??

Agnes Moorehead was the steady anchor these hysterical characters needed.