Me condena la conciencia

Robert Young scores a real acting triumph playing against his nice guy Father Knows Best type to play a womanizer who fate deals a really tricky hand. The film is a combination of The Apartment and The Postman Always Rings Twice.

As in The Apartment where Fred MacMurray has the nice established front of the wife and kiddies and carries on with whomever in the office, Young is the outwardly happily married man whose got a real itch that needs scratching. He's scratching it with Jane Greer at the moment while he's married to Rita Johnson. Greer gets tired of the arrangement and gives Young the door. Young then takes up with the saucy office tramp Susan Hayward and in doing so takes her away from Tom Powers the boss.

I can't go any further except to say two women wind up dead, the third one turns evidence on him and Young winds up on trial for his life. The film is told in flashback while Young is put on the witness stand by his lawyer Frank Ferguson. As he tells his story he knows that They Won't Believe Me.

This is one of the cleverest noir films going. Had it been done at 20th Century Fox it would have been played by Tyrone Power in one of his heel characterizations. Young did a brilliant job with this role juggling his love life around these three beauties. And I can't single one of the women to say they stood above the others.

Definitely a must for fans of the noir genre.

I'm not a fan of old movies, but I got up early this morning and intended to go back to bed. Something about this movie caught my eye, so I thought I'd watch a few minutes of it before heading back to bed. I ended up not going back to bed because I couldn't turn the tv off. I couldn't believe how interesting this story was! Despite another reviewer's comments, I found the main character to be flawed, but sympathetic. I wouldn't do the things he did, but I imagine someone out there would. He had everything going for him, but screwed it up, and hardly ever made the right move. I did find the end to be... strange, let's say. I can't imagine THAT happening in any year, 1947 or 2000, but otherwise, it's a great flick. If you like older movies, beautiful starletts, solid acting, and an interesting storyline, you shouldn't pass this movie up. I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Robert Young as a philanderer - that should tip you off that "They Won't Believe Me" is going to be unusual. Before finding success as a warm dad and a kind doctor on television, Young often played romantic roles, earnest roles, or the uptight boss. Occasionally, though, the role of someone with a criminal mind would sneak in. Here, Young plays a man who marries a woman for her money and then cheats on her constantly - though he always goes back to the comforts of home. After dumping one woman, portrayed by Jane Greer, he picks up with a secretary in his securities firm, a young Susan Hayward - he leaves her, too, but has second thoughts. The result is a very interesting drama, told in flashback.

This is an excellent movie with a surprise ending that probably was insisted on to satisfy the code. The acting is very good all around. Young comes off as just slimy enough without being offensively so; Hayward's gold digger is glamorous, sexy, and conniving; and Jane Greer, in the most sympathetic role, looks fabulous and is her usual marvelous self as a woman who can't help loving this man, even with his flaws. Rita Johnson is very good as Young's attractive and determined wife.

All in all, I really enjoyed "They Won't Believe Me." Very entertaining.

Great performances from the four leads make this noirish melodrama a stand-out. Cast against type, Robert Young gives one of his finest performances (far more interesting than that in Crossfire), subtly giving his role of philandering but strangely sympathetic heel a depth which may perhaps go by unnoticed by some. Rita Johnson, in the minimal screen time alloted her, is likewise able to intimate complexities of character which imbue her role of manipulative wife with a touching frailty.

The shortened re-release version (which I viewed in a colourized copy) has been cleverly edited to leave the plot intact, but with 15 minutes of cuts significant elements of character development (all-important in a film of this type) have been sacrificed. The deletion of part of the scene at Nicks dilutes the initial warmth of the relationship between the Young and Jane Greer characters. And a concert scene which shows up the petulant nature of the Susan Hayward character has been deleted altogether. Other elements deleted from the re-release print are some of the opening remarks made by Frank Ferguson, and some dialogue between Young and Hayward when they are in his car on the way to her apartment.

Intricately plotted noir with one too many surprises for my book, but is still underrated. Nice guy Robert Young gets to break character and play a real heel for a change. He's not wicked, just weak, following his wife around because that's where the money is. He's about as faithful as a Tom cat in heat, but she's too dependent to care. Even his one noble gesture ends in a fiery crash.

Young looks the part of a married gigolo, all slicked down in fancy suits, sipping martinis in upscale bars. But then who could resist that luscious package Susan Hayward even if she is just an office girl with scheming ambition. Their gambits of conversation amount to little gems of carnal aggression. Pity poor wife Rita Johnson who's all business-like competence, but can hardly compete in the glamor department with either Hayward or the sultry Greer. The faithful stallion is, I guess, her consolation prize and an excellent touch. He's like the eye of fate watching from above the mountain pool in a meaningful moment that foreshadows the reckoning yet to come.

In passing-- I can't help noticing the true-love embrace of Hayward and Young washed clean now in the mountain lake and the similarly meaningful ocean scene of Garfield and Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice. The aftermaths look also suspiciously similar. Postman came out about six months earlier than this one, so draw your own conclusions.

Too bad director Pichel adds so little to the screenplay. Indeed, the story's strong enough to carry interest; still, he films in straightforward, unimaginative fashion. The cross-currents and conflicts, however, cry out for a stronger expressionistic approach, especially the waterfall and pool scenes. A better noir director like Siodmak or Lang could have deepened the visuals to complement the strong screenplay. Also, someone muffs the staging of the very last scene which comes across as incredible given the crowded courtroom and police guards. It also distracts from an interesting ambiguity-- is Young too weak to face a verdict or has he simply passed judgement on himself.

For those of us who remember the wholesome TV series Father Knows Best, seeing Young here takes some getting used to.