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This one is a sleeper. It catches you by surprise. You think they're going one way but then they switch course and by the time you think you've figured it out they've switched again. Everything about is is first rate. The acting, dialog, scenery, direction, I mean everything. What's more surprising is that it takes place during Victorian England yet deals with subjects the gentle folk of that age preferred to keep under wraps. Despite the period costumes and scenery there's something very modern about the story. The two standouts here are both headliners, especially Ray Milland. His character starts out much like the one he played in "Dial M for Murder" but here he is more multi-dimensional, perhaps more human, not so narcissistic. And you can't help but like him, despite his shortcomings and machinations. Ann Todd too was very sympathetic despite her weakness for the charming Milland character. She exhibited an endearing vulnerability coupled with dogged determination. In the end I guess it had to end the way it did. But I fervently hoped for some other conclusion, one where the lovers pursued their dreams without wrecking the lives of others. That's how close I felt to them.

I've casually caught this oldie on a regional network and remained very positively surprised: this movie is a little masterpiece, a misknown jewel of Hollywood false english style and probably the most underrated of the "flamboyant" melodramas of the period. A compelling psychological study for its time, with an absolutely outstanding Ann Todd(I've seen her in "The Paradine case" and sincerely I didn't expect such a performance from her). Both Milland and Fitzgerald, moreover, provide a strong support and the soundtrack is very compelling (if somewhere excessive).

Widowed Ann Todd (Olivia) returns from Jamaica from her Missionary work and smoking loads of ganja to live out her life in her Kensington house where she rents a room to prudish busy-body Muriel Aked (Miss Shoebridge). On her trip back to the UK, she made friends with thief Ray Milland (Mike) who now shows up at her house looking for lodgings. She is unaware of his past and takes him in, but he has ulterior motives. He flatters and charms her until she falls in love with him and agrees to go along with his plans to blackmail the household of Todd's wealthy school friend Geraldine Fitzgerald (Susan) who is married to the bullying and socially-aspiring Raymond Huntley (Henry). However, things don't go to plan…..

The film develops at a leisurely pace and it seems a bit too long, but it is worth it for the final third when the tension starts to increase, and I certainly did not expect the final outcome when Todd and Milland meet up to make their getaway. I found it to be a satisfying conclusion which may leave you on a bit of a downer but it is effective melodrama.

The acting is good with a special mention to Ann Todd. She convinces as a vulnerable widow as well as a broken-hearted woman who is out for revenge. Milland's girlfriend Moira Lister (Kitty) also does well in one of the smaller roles and she is crucial to the way the story pans out in the end.

There is an atmospheric setting of Victorian London and the story is based on a true incident which all adds to the interest. It's a film that is worth seeing if only as a warning against being unfaithful in love. Don't expect forgiveness.

"So Evil My Love" is a 1948 British film starring Ann Todd and Ray Milland. Todd plays Olivia, a widow returning from missionary work, who re-opens her house and takes in lodgers. Milland is Mark Bellis, a man she has met previously, who claims to be homeless and asks for a room. Though it isn't quite proper, she agrees. Olivia doesn't know that he's an art thief and has a girlfriend. She falls in love with him, and Mark seduces her into a life of crime and betrayal by having her take advantage of her wealthy, frail friend Susan (Geraldine Fitzgerald). Olivia and Mark steal from Susan's husband (Raymond Huntley). And that's not all.

Pretty good film, though it was a bit of a stretch for me to believe missionary Olivia going over to the dark side so quickly. All of the actors give good, solid performances, with Huntley and Fitzgerald standouts. Milland could play a con artist well, and Todd is enigmatic as Olivia, a woman with deep emotions beneath the surface. Leo G. Carroll plays a detective who preys on Olivia's conscience.

The movie is very dark and atmospheric. Some of the best scenes are in the last fifteen minutes. Recommended.

Joseph Shearing (a pseudonym) was a woman novelist specializing in tales based on actual murder cases. Her novel AIRING IN A CLOSED CARRIAGE is based on the murder of James Maybrick, presumably by his wife Florence in 1889. SO EVIL MY LOVE is based on an earlier poisoning case, the death (in 1876) of Charles Delauney Turner Bravo, a wealthy barrister, at his home "The Priory" in Balham, England. It is a murder that was never really settled. Although doubts remain as to James Maybrick being a victim of murder or accident, Florence was convicted after a controversial trial, and then got her sentence reduced. In the Bravo case, suspicion fell on his wife, on the wife's close friend, and on an elderly doctor who had an earlier affair with the wife. Nothing was really determined. Ms Shearing has opted for the close friend (in real life her name was Jane Cox)to be the killer, although driven to it here by her devotion to a cad (not historically true). The conclusion of the film, where Ann Todd discovers how Ray Milland used her and turns on him in a closed Hansom Cab seems based on a 1904 New York City murder, the Nan Patterson-Ceasar Young case.