Ivy

I found this to be a very enjoyable melodrama.

The story is about how Joan Fontaine tries to rid herself of a husband and a lover in order to obtain a wealthy Englishman.

Solid performances by the supporting players are outstanding as is the lead performance of Joan Fontaine.

Also great were the costumes and the sets--very impressive and realistic, at least they looked that way to me.

I'm a sucker for these old black and white melodrama mysteries and I found this one to be one of the best ones.

Poor Ivy: Though to the manner born, she had the bad luck to marry a charming wastrel (Richard Ney). As the movie is set in the 20s or 30s, when rigid Victorian ideas of class were starting to fray at the edges, this uncertain status vexes her unduly. The Gretorexes (for so they are called) don't know where their next shilling is coming from but there are yachting parties and fancy-dress balls in posh pleasaunces aplenty to tempt her. When Ivy (Joan Fontaine) makes the acquaintance of a wealthy older gent (Herbert Marshall, who must have been born middle-aged), she sets one of her extravant chapeaux for him. Luckily, one of the beaux she still strings along (Patric Knowles) is a physician whose consulting rooms provide a cache of poison, with which she bids her hubby farewell. The fact that it implicates Knowles doesn't phase her a bit, even as the hours trickle by until he should be hanged by the neck until dead. The turning of the plot depends on police inspector Sir Cedric Hardwicke; Knowles' mother (the redoubtable Lucile Watson); and Knowles' loyal housekeeper (Una O'Connor). Sam Wood adds some subtle touches to this well above average melodrama; Fontaine's luminous face supplies the rest.

Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland were sisters - both beautiful, both with a very sweet quality. Yet Joan more than Olivia was given roles that called for a somewhat manipulative side.

Ivy from 1947 is Joan, gorgeous in Victorian costumes, playing Ivy, a married woman with a boyfriend on the side (Patric Knowles). She and her husband (Richard Ney) are broke and keeping up a pretense with their socieity friends.

Ivy wants money, and when she meets the elegant Miles Rushworth (Herbert Marshall), she decides he's the one for her. He is attracted to her, which is a help. One night, he kisses her, and then apologizes profusely for kissing a married woman. So Ivy will have to do something about that. Maybe she can get rid of the husband and the lover at the same time.

Really terrific film with a wonderful performance by Fontaine, who could be so demure and yet a viper underneath.

Sumptuous atmosphere and, as mentioned, costumes. It's an absorbing film.

An excellent period murder melodrama, with Fontaine effectively playing against her earlier naive wallflower type, in a role that reportedly Olivia DeHavilland turned down. That's fine, because Fontaine is wonderful. Scripted by Charles Bennett, who had written for Hitchcock in the thirties and also later penned the excellent script for the classic British horror film Night of the Demon. The opening scene, where Ivy visits a sinister fortune teller played by the wonderful Una O'Connor (the screecher of James Whale fame), is a tour de force, and the film maintains interest throughout the numerous sinister machinations. I hope to see this film on DVD someday, but despair of that ever happening, because it seems to be an undeservedly obscure film. Fortunately I got to see it on AMC some seven or eight years ago, but have not seen since. Catch it if you can!

Ivy is directed by Sam Wood and adapted to screenplay by Charles Bennett from the novel The Story of Ivy written by Marie Belloc Lowndes. It stars Joan Fontaine, Patric Knowles, Herbert Marshall, Richard Ney, Cedric Hardwicke and Lucile Watson. Music is by Daniele Amfitheatrof and cinematography by Russell Metty.

Ivy Lexton (Fontaine) has a hunger to be wealthy, and setting her sights on well-to-do Miles Rushworth ( Marshall), Ivy plots a fiendish plan that spells trouble for her husband Jervis (Ney) and her lover Roger (Knowles).

Well worth discovering, Ivy showcases the dark side of Fontaine's acting prowess for great entertainment rewards. The beautiful Madame Fontaine actually disowned the movie, and this after she stepped in to the role of Ivy Lexton after her sister Olivia de Havilland turned it down. Her lack of affection for the picture goes some way to explaining why it has remained largely forgotten, which is a shame because it's a high end gaslight noir propelled by a femme fatale of some considerable substance.

The budget was high, and it shows, in the cast list, the costuming and the stunning turn of the century production design by William Cameron Menzies. Metty's low-key photography cloaks the Edwardian settings with atmospheric snugness, while Amfitheatrof underscores the drama with music that is appropriately tinged with chills. Thematically the piece is focusing on obsessions, by way of man's ignorant lust and woman's pursuit of wealth above all else. All characters are defined not by fate here, but by their actions, making for a hornet's nest of murder and adultery.

1947 was a stellar year for film noir, with big hitting movies like Out of the Past, Nightmare Alley, Kiss of Death, Odd Man Out and Brighton Rock further cementing the growing popularity of noir as a style of film making. As is often the case with the great noir years from the classic cycle, there's still little gems hidden away waiting to be brought out into the open, Ivy is one such film. Fontaine and the sumptuous noir visual style ensure this to be the case. 8/10