A Woman's Secret

Though not really a noir, this emerged a surprisingly compelling melodrama. That said, prior to its late-night Italian screening, the notoriously eccentric commentator Enrico Ghezzi stated that the film – Ray's second – was forced on him by Dore Schary; it is evident because, if there's an auteur at work here, it's screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Ray's treatment, however, is sufficiently stylish to overcome the essential impersonality with which he approached the material and, at least, through working on this film, he met future wife Gloria Grahame!).

Even if controversy still rages over Mankiewicz' exact contribution to CITIZEN KANE (1941), he gives this one a similar flashback structure; of course, comparisons to Orson Welles' magnum opus won't do Ray's more modest effort any favors, so I won't make any! Still, while not especially memorable, the film can stand on its own two feet – thanks largely to a fine cast (an unusually aggressive Maureen O'Hara, the volatile Grahame, the typically cynical Melvyn Douglas, Victor Jory as a wealthy but love-struck middle-aged man, Jay C. Flippen as an understanding police inspector). By the way, amusing though it is, the film's injection of humor is rather atypical for Ray – particularly in the figure of Flippen's wife, who likes to carry out her own sleuthing!

With elements of All About Eve, Mildred Pierce and Trapeze in it, A Woman's Secret hardly rates as being as good as one of the three films mentioned. Maybe the title is wrong, there really is no secret about anything here.

If A Woman's Secret has earned any place at all in cinema history it's because director Nicholas Ray met and fell for Gloria Grahame on the set of this film. He became her second husband.

As for the film, retired singer now manager Maureen O'Hara has a quarrel with her protégé Gloria Grahame. Later on when Grahame is shot and critically wounded, O'Hara is brought in for questioning.

Composer and critic Melvyn Douglas in a character based on parts of Alexander Woollcott, Clifton Fadiman, and Oscar Levant just simply doesn't believe the whole thing. He lobbies vigorously on O'Hara's behalf with investigating detective Jay C. Flippen. But it's Flippen's wife, Mary Phillips, who actually finds the key. The answer is really rather obvious, but it's how the story is unraveled that's the key to the film.

Nicholas Ray went on to direct a whole lot better films and the suspense factor just isn't there for me in this one. The very professional cast go through their required paces. Others in the ensemble include Victor Jory as a criminal attorney that Douglas brings in for O'Hara who knows both of them and Bill Williams, a former GI who was to marry Grahame.

With their only being a small amount of alternate probabilities other than O'Hara trying to commit murder, there's not much of a secret to A Woman's Secret.

Maureen O'Hara confesses to shooting her protégée (Gloria Grahame) in "A Woman's Secret," costarring Melvyn Douglas. Though this is a drama, it actually has a witty script, a light touch, and wonderful performances.

Most of the story is told in flashbacks as Douglas, who plays a pianist/songwriter, describes to police detective Jay C. Flippen why it was impossible for O'Hara to have shot the singer Estrelita, whom O'Hara and Douglas discovered and helped make famous.

Melvyn Douglas' years as a great actor came later in his life. For most of his career, he sailed through roles that were beneath his abilities. He delivers his lines here with a dry wit and is delightful. Grahame does a great job as the singer. She's cute, sexy, and funny without meaning to be and, though the character is very self-involved, she's somewhat endearing. O'Hara's role doesn't allow for any humor, and she carries it off well. O'Hara had a lovely soprano voice and starred in a Broadway show, "Christine," but it isn't clear whether or not she did her own singing in the film.

Some of the best scenes, though, are provided by Jay C. Flippen and Mary Phillips, who play husband and wife. She's a little too interested in his police work, but their love shines through.

All in all, a good watch.

Maureen O'Hara should have been a star, she was a brilliant singer but her vocal chords gave out just as she was about to make it big. Rather than fade away, she used her formidable drive and intelligence to manage another singer to stardom, the lovely but dense Gloria Grahame. As the movie opens she is arrested for shooting Grahame, and the movie tells their story in flashback form.

I liked this movie a lot, it's intelligent and engrossing, and one of the few films of the period to focus on the relationship between two women. They need each other to achieve anything, but are complete opposites. O'Hara is focused, driven, smart, savvy and lives for her work; and Grahame is a dim-witted, good-natured bimbo who'd just like to enjoy life. The conflicts between them grow and grow as the movie progresses, building up until we come back to the shooting of Grahame.

The performances are good, as they should be in a character-driven film like this. O'Hara is as strong and smart as she usually is, and enjoys the chance to explore feelings not found in her usual romantic roles. It's priceless to watch her react to Grahame's blitherings. Grahame gives one of her best performances here (I've never been impressed with any others, truth to tell), she has a lovely time dropping bricks in polite company and blithely accepting the adoration of every man she meets.

Worth a look if you're in a mood for interesting people, not explosions.

While he waited (and waited) for his unique debut feature 'Your Red Wagon' to be released Nicholas Ray churned out this breezy potboiler which was probably the nearest he came to making a comedy (Mary Phillips is a blast as detective Jay C. Flippen's feisty wife). Just as 'Your Red Wagon' finally hit cinemas as 'They Live by Night', so the shooting title here was 'The Long Denial' (the original novel by Vickie Baum was called 'Mortgage from Life') but it eventually became 'A Woman's Secret'.

Written and produced by Herman Mankiewicz, it resembles a light-hearted cross between 'All About Eve' and 'Rashomon'. A bonus for Ray proved second lead Gloria Grahame, playing a torch singer who went under the name Estrellita, with whom he quickly became an item (Patrick McGilligan later observed that she "had been alluring in earlier film appearances, but Ray would make her glow as never before in his new film") and married as soon as her divorce came through.