Bedelia

The author of "Laura," Vera Caspary, wrote this post-war drama, Bedelia, starring Margaret Lockwood, Ian Hunter, and Barry K. Barnes. Barnes plays an artist named Cheney who meets newlyweds Charles and Bedelia and asks to paint Bedelia. Bedelia is a little funny about having her photo taken and she doesn't really like the idea of a portrait, but she goes along with it.

When a guest at the hotel where she's staying thinks she's someone else, we begin to see why she doesn't want her picture taken.

Finally glad to leave for home and get away from the very nosy Cheney, Bedelia and Charles go Charles' mansion in north England. Oh, guess who is going to be visiting. Cheney.

Good drama, somewhat predictable with nice performances. Lockwood is lovely in a variety of gowns. Worth seeing for the atmosphere and performances.

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.

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.

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

I first saw this film late at night in 1965. Very well done and both Lockwood and Anne Crawford (a sadly overlooked actress) are in their prime. After viewing this film, I came across the book written by Vera Caspary and was surprised to find that in the book the story was set in Connecticut during the Christmas tide of 1913; rather than England in 1946. At that time, many films had a late Victorian/early Edwardian setting and it was of interest to me that the period was updated to modern (1946) days. One key point of the period setting was the fact that after a snowstorm the characters were isolated and news was slower to reach people in 1913. One wonders what this film would have been like had the period setting been left intact.

On a trivia note, this film was one of the few independent productions made at Ealing Studios without the "Ealing Team" being involved.