Amargo desquite

I liked this film until about halfway or two-thirds of the way through. It had great concepts, complicated relationships and psychology, and compelling storylines. The actors are wonderful and really pull off their roles well. They're well cast. However the second half or final third is marred by terrible psychology and loose ends. Things start not making sense and never stop. There are some Hail Marys in here that just don't work well. You really have to push the boundaries of realism to enjoy this one, which is a shame since it had such a strong start.

There is good soap and corny soap; this film definitely falls into the latter category. Gone With the Wind and West Side Story are good soaps and both have innocents who are sacrificed in the course of events, as this film does. However, the former films have a much higher degree of believability; this film does not. Robert Cummngs, Lizabeth Scott, and Diana Lynn all give worthy performances, but even their best efforts cannot overcome a highly flawed story line. In real life, these sisters would probably never have spoken to each other again after the failed first marriage, much less remain in constant contact. All the ensuing events after the first marriage rang false to me. For soap lovers only; and for those who still believe in the Easter Bunny.

PAID IN FULL boasts terrific work from two underrated actresses, Lizabeth Scott and Diana Lynn, here playing sisters. Scott is the older one, the sensible sister who has raised Lynn after their mother died in childbirth from something called placenta previa. Scott works in a department store as an illustrator while Lynn, a spoiled little witch, works as a model. Lynn is trying to hook a rich husband but when that fails she grabs upwardly mobile Robert Cummings, who works with Scott and is Scott's secret love. But it's no secret to Lynn.

Lynn has a baby, but she's psychotic with jealousy and hates sharing the child with Cummings or anyone. After a few plot twists which lead to divorce. Scott marries Cummings and has a baby even though she has the same disease her mother had.

Scott often played rotten ladies, sort of a queen of noir films in the 40s and 50s, but here plays the goody good girl, while perky Lynn, often cast in kid sister roles, seemingly exults in playing the witch. Cummings stands around. Eve Arden plays the man-hungry co-worker, Stanley Ridges the kindly doctor, and Carol Channing makes her film debut. A rather lurid women's picture but well worth catching.

We love Lizabeth Scott when she's bad. She isn't bad in this, the script and the rest of the cast is. Bob Cummings should stick to light comedy and the other leading lady is so bland I can't remember her.

The overwrought accident that causes all the guilt and melodrama is as ludicrous as the sacrifice made at the ending.

Following an opening salvo of schmooze fest bonhomie and lighthearted romance, perpetuated by Eve Arden's irrepressible, razor sharp wit, Paid in Full hints at both film noir and psychological drama, prior to falling flat on its face, wallowing in the worst excesses of mawkish afternoon soap.

The movie confronts some delicate and distressing personal issues, but in such a contrived and gauche fashion that the events, traumatic as they are, feel like they have been grafted on to the narrative for maximum emotional mileage, rather than as natural and integral aspects of the story.

Paid in Full may have scored heavily on the 'not a dry eye in the house' ratings at the time of its release, but disappointingly wastes the talents of its three leads, the aforementioned Eve Arden and the hugely undervalued Kristine Miller. Overlong, overblown and overwrought, this turgid tearjerker now seems stodgy, dated and largely implausible.