The Woman Between

After Lester Vail's mother died, his father, O.P. Heggie told him he was marrying again. Lester headed out and spent a decade or so knocking around the world. He's headed home, and on the voyage, he has an affair with Lili Damita, who he suspects is married. When he gets home, there she is, his stepmother.

It's one of those improbable soap-opera plots in which the heroine suffers. Miss Damita asks her husband why he married her. To my way of thinking, he should ask her, but the question never seems to come up, only her suffering. Meanwhile, I'm wondering if O.P. Heggie is going to get it in the neck.

Miss Damita sings a chanson adequately, for no clear reason, Miriam Seegar has the face of an angel. I'd like to think that improbably plotted weepers like this are why Miss Damita retired early. Her line readings are too slow and uncertain. Clearly she -- and her character -- are speaking in a second language, and the audience has a tough time understanding her words, let alone her thoughts.

A weak entry in recent home video issues of rarely seen pre-code titles. The soap-opera plot is not unusual, but it's poorly handled by the direction and by the lackluster cast. In spite of Lily Damita's starring credit, she's not very good--perhaps it was the language issue, or maybe she just wasn't into the silly plot, or maybe she couldn't really act, at least based on this film. In any case, she can't carry the film, nor can the other actors. THE WOMAN BETWEEN has appeared in a set with much better movies. You can probably skip it.

If you mention the name Lily Damita today, you'd probably find few people that would remember her. Some, like me, would remember that she was one of Errol Flynn's wives. But very, very few would remember her as an actress. This is because she never made that many films--and this probably was because she was a terrible actress. Now it might not have been entirely her fault--after all, English clearly was not her first language. And, in the 30s and 40s, Hollywood was trying again and again to replicate the Garbo appeal by hiring a wide variety of European vamps--most of which were not particularly good--and she was just one of many such actresses. But when you see "The Woman Between", the limitations of her talents are clearly demonstrated.

Damita plays a woman who is torn between her loving husband and her husband's estranged son who she met on a cruise. Not knowing who she was, she fell for him and plans on running away with the younger man. Now her is where it gets weird--even when the two young lovers realize the score, they STILL plan on running away...sort of like a reworking of Oedipus!

So why do I give the film a 3? Well, due to Damita's performance and most everything else about the movie, I was planning on giving it a 1 or a 2. After all, Damita mostly stares into the camera and does a great impression of a woman suffering from Diverticulitis! The other actors are often quite bad (particularly the whiny daughter) and there is a lot of very sloppy exposition in the beginning of the film--where friends explain, very rapidly, the back story in an incredibly unnatural and awkward manner. However, the husband (O.P. Heggie) was quite good--too good for this thankless film. I liked his performance.

Lily Damita, a successful businesswoman and pre-code hottie, is married to OP Heggie, aging millionaire, who can't bring himself to admit his luck. When a passionate young man woos her, despite the wedding ring, how will poor Lily escape the scandal of being THE WOMAN BETWEEN?

Fans of pre-code will likely enjoy this, as it features the slightly tawdry soapy plot and the well dressed (right down to their underthings) women these things often have. The hard life a woman who has married money, but wants to be loved for herself (and not her hotness) and respected has been movie fodder for years, and the familiarity of the goings on, experienced in 30s dress, provides the fascination in this movie. The main question -- which does not quite get answered -- is whether OP Heggie is quite as oblivious as he appears. What's also noteworthy is that, for once, one of those bratty daughters of society gets precisely what she deserves (rather than the male lead).

Worth finding and catching.