Another Man's Poison

Whisked away to make this murder-mystery with her newly hitched fourth husband Gary Merrill in Britain, a follow-up of her "all-time best performance" in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's ALL ABOUT EVE (1950), Ms. Davis recruits the director of NOW, VOYAGER (1942), Irving Rapper to take the helm, but overall, the final product is a secondary offering in every aspect.

ANOTHER MAN'S POISON, takes place in a Podunk Northern England town, mostly, sets in an isolated mansion inhabited by mystery novelist Janet Frobisher (Davis), who has no qualms about poisoning her long-absent husband when the latter gets rough, and soon is pressed into playing wife and husband with George Bates (Merrill), her husband's bank-robbing accomplice, on the contingency to cover for her crime and grant George a haven to stay, one stone two birds? Hardly so.

The imposter game is played out with barbs and ploys duly leveling at each other, while Merrill is fierce enough to be alternately menacing, callous and wanton, winning an upper hand for him is a forlorn hope from the very start in the face of Davis' characteristic wide-eyed fearlessness and insidious fickleness. Firing on all cylinders, her madness and vile calculation completely overshadows the danger befalling on a woman mired in a precarious situation, thus not for one second, audience dreads for Janet's safety, which makes her a less all-around character for the sake of characterization. She is no man's fortune and all man's poison, yet, Janet still enjoys a last laugh before ironically hoisted by her own petard.

Also enmeshed in the fix (though unwittingly) is Janet's secretary Chris Dale (a comely Murray, calmly nerves herself to confront Davis in a poorly designed role) and her fiancé Larry (a blandly handsome Steel), who actually is Janet's paramour for almost a year. While the bloom is clearly off the rose, Davis (at the age of 43) pluckily knuckles down the cougar town and as this reviewer sees it, takes more pleasure in the scenes where a youthful Chris concedes defeat to her and implores her to give Larry back, lines like "you are a charming woman who can have any man you want." appear many time to reassure Davis that her appeal still prevail (over her much younger competitors), but in hindsight, a self-defeating whiff of deep-rooted insecurity is all one can sniff.

British actor Emlyn Williams, third-billed as the nosey-parker, smart-aleck veterinarian-turned-amateur-sleuth Dr. Henderson, has never bedded in felicitously in his somewhat vexing and often unaccountable blow-ins, a better script can offer more coherence, and one thing is for sure, this film-noir does pull out all its stops to suffix poetic justice in its cockamamie plot.

I appreciate this terse movie's smart script, staging, and tight editing, especially upon second viewing. Of course the nosy neighbor veterinarian serves mainly as a plot vehicle, but the role is well acted. Gary Merrill's George Bates seems lacking some refinement of expression. He plays it like an open book, and makes Bates a totally sympathetic character. The story hinges on the power plays between Bates and devious Janet as, chained together by their crimes, they struggle for the upper hand via her scheming and his brute force. Their tortured relationship could have a plausible chance for success, given the plot circumstances, but the secretary's fiancé Larry is in the way, creating a tension that draws the characters to the unhappy climax. Davis is in good form, and this is an entertaining film.

Since there is a finite number of Bette Davis films available for viewing in 2006, one has to value each for what it is. Although "Poison" may not be in her top 10, Davis is the master, and it is infinitely preferable to experience it than not.

Still fresh from their success and newfound love in "All About Eve," Bette Davis and Gary Merrill made this independent film, "Another Man's Poison," based on a play by Leslie Sands.

Davis is Janet Frobisher, a successful mystery writer living in a mausoleum of a house out on the moors. When her husband's partner in a bank robbery comes there looking for him, Frobisher announces that he's in the study - dead from the poison she gave him (medicine intended for her beloved horse, Fury). While they're attempting to dispose of the body, Frobisher's paramour, whom she summoned earlier, arrives with his fiancé (who is also Frobisher's secretary). The bank robber, named George Bates, introduces himself as Frobisher's estranged husband and settles in.

This is a neat, atmospheric story with an edgy, vital performance by Davis. Merrill, ruggedly handsome, is appropriately gruff and sinister. Though his character thinks he and Frobisher might really have a chance at playing house, his competition is the very handsome, young Anthony Steel, a popular British matinée idol of the '40s. Emlyn Williams is marvelous as the nosy, annoying veterinarian who keeps stopping by.

"Another Man's Poison" seems to have been made rather cheaply - the print I saw was not of great quality, and the lighting is on the dark side. Though the setting is somewhat static because it was originally a play, the film is very intriguing, and Davis always worth seeing. Highly recommended.

Overblown melodrama with Bette pulling out all the stops and putting any idea of subtlety aside. If you enjoy films where she turns in that sort of performance as opposed to her quieter work in films like Dark Victory or Watch on the Rhine than this is for you. Reunited with her Now, Voyager director but certainly not on a script of that calibre he seems unable to rein her in, everybody else tries to compete and while the rest of the cast turn in decent performances when Bette struts into view blowing smoke and popping her eyes no one else stands a chance. Filmed directly after one of her best performances in All About Eve and with new husband Gary Merrill in tow she apparently didn't think much of the script and as she sometimes did when faced with less than stellar material she plays to the balconies. Deliciously grand and over the top.

I agree with other reviewers who found merit in this film. Maybe because I watched it "on a dark and stormy night," I found the film to have quite a few endearing qualities, including a sufficiently gloomy and Gothic setting, solid acting, a big dash of melodrama (sometimes unintentionally funny), some brilliant catch phrases, a couple of handsome equines, some much-needed tawdriness, intriguing real world background, an astute and meddling detective type, and of course Bette as the menacing, manipulative author of thrillers (undoubtedly as sordid as her behavior). I mean, what's not to like? Sure, the plot has some real twists that are beyond suspending disbelief, and the quality of the film isn't the best, but if you're a fan of the genre or Bette, then this is a must see. But first, pour yourself a stiff drink. Preferably, direct from the bottle.