The Other Woman

Hugo Haas, born in Czechoslovakia but driven out of his country by Hitler, immigrated to the United States. He is a curious figure in the history of independent American film. Rather like his contemporary Sam Fuller, he produced, wrote, and directed any number of low-budget films, often released under the banner of a major studio, but apparently with little studio interference. Unlike other auteurs, he was completely in charge of the product; in Hass' case, the standard "B" picture thriller on the lower half of the double feature. Haas usually played the male role in his films: that of a bewildered middle-aged and slightly overweight European, the unwilling victim of a sleek sexy but thoroughly cold-blooded American woman, living by her wits, out to get some poor sucker's money in any way possible. Cleo Moore or Beverly Michaels usually played the archetypical blonde; neither by Hollywood standards conventional beauties, more like George Grocz caricatures of femme fatales. There is no doubt that Haas was a serious filmmaker, very ambitious despite his limited budgets; one, however, that neither the newspaper critics in the United States nor, more surprisingly, the Cahier du Cinema gang chose to embrace. This film is probably his best, because it offers in addition to a conventional blackmail plot a backstage look at the real Poverty Row Hollywood with its thrown together sets, offices, cutting-rooms and out of work actors. In the story Hass is an émigré director, married to the daughter of the head of a big studio, played here perfectly by Jack Macy, who for once actually looks and sounds like a typical mogul of the time. No Walter Pidgeon he. There are some unusual exchanges between Haas and Macy about what makes for a commercial film. The dialogue comes from the heart. Haas's. Well worth watching.

B queen Cleo Moore is known affectionately as the "Queen of the B Movie Bad Girls" among latter-day movie buffs for her string of 1950's melodramas but actually in most of her films she's a fairly good girl who makes bad choices. That's not the case in THE OTHER WOMAN where she plays a malevolent blonde so vicious she comes close to making Ann Savage's legendary Vera in DETOUR look angelic.

Cleo stars as Sherry Stewart, a bitter film extra who is suddenly given a chance at a bit part with lines by film director Hugo Haas. Hopelessly incompetent at saying her three lines, she is gently replaced by another woman. Irrational and furious at Haas, she sets up an elaborate scheme to blackmail Hugo if not destroy him.

Although she looks sensational in one segment in a black gown and wrapped in white fur, Cleo's character is presented as cheap and a bit unbalanced and she receives some of the least flattering cinematography of her career, apparently to emphasize the character's hardness and lack of class. There are some good scenes (Sherry's disastrous attempt attempt at acting, her inner humiliation as the extras and crew smirk) but it seems a bit ironic for the less-than-spectacular director Haas to play a director with ambitions of art. This is one of Haas' better acting performances however as the luckless soul who doesn't know what has hit him, a staple film noir situation. Cleo is very good in a rather sketchy role as a vengeful blonde out of control. THE OTHER WOMAN is not likely to land on anyone's list of favorite movies but it is a fairly intriguing and unusual film noir set in Hollywood.

Cleo Moore is an extra on Hugo Haas' latest picture. When a bit player has to go to the hospital, he gives the three lines to Miss Moore. She blows three takes, despite some quiet coaching by Haas, so he shuts down production for the day, and shoots it with another actress the next day.

Miss Moore does;'t take it well. She thinks she was doing fine, but Haas was tormenting her, trying to make her look like a fool. She decides to get even.

Hugo Haas wrote, directed, and starred in this movie about Miss Moore's search for revenge, and it's a nice little movie...except for Miss Moore, whose delivery is all over the shop. Perhaps that was a deliberate choice, but it winds up being unconvincing. She had been a minor actress in Hollywood for several years at this point. She had also been married to Huey Long's son in her native Louisiana for six weeks when she was nineteen, then came to Hollywood. A couple of years after this movie came out, she ran for governor herself. She died in 1973, aged 48.

Your heart really breaks for Hugo Haas as he confronts "The Other Woman" in this B film also starring Cleo Moore. Lance Fuller, and John Qualen.

Moore plays a would-be actress who couldn't act her way out of phone booth with the door open. When she fails miserably with three lines, the director (Haas) replaces her. An angry and deeply disturbed woman, she decides to destroy him and sets him up for blackmail.

After suckering Walter Darman (Haas) into giving her a ride home, Sherry (Moore) slips him a mickey. The next morning he has lipstick on his face and shirt, and Moore is acting as if they had a night of fun. And she makes sure her friend (Lance Fuller) stops by to see Darman there. All part of the plan.

Sherry later claims to be pregnant and wants $50,000. Darman is sure she is lying, that nothing happened, but she calls and visits his office frequently, putting on the pressure.

Hugo Haas and Cleo Moore made I think seven films together, B movies, and made a good team. Haas in his native Czechoslovakia wa a well-known actor until he had to flee the Nazis. He continued acting in the states but also became a writer and director, specializing in these B noirs.

Cleo, a blond sexpot in the Monroe tradition, has the street-wise femme fatale down and looks fantastic. Married at one time to Huey Long's son, she actually ran for Governor of Louisiana in 1956 (a publicity stunt).

Moore quit movies in 1961 when she married a multimillionaire. She certainly was a better actress than the character she played. Sadly, she died young and didn't live to see the cult status she achieved in the '80s, which continues.

All in all, like other Haas films, entertaining.

By the time he made this, his seventh independent production, Hugo Haas evidently had plenty to get off his chest both about dealing with producers and with blondes; the studio setting (as well on saving on sets) providing interesting glimpses of both the mechanics and compromises involved in the filmmaking process.

Cynically manipulated by the law by appealing to his conscience; the final shot memorably echoes that that opened the film.