For one thing you've got quite a bit of playing against type. Robert Mitchum as a microbiologist researcher with a profound sense of decency and honor? Melvyn Douglas as a layabout lady's man who would boink his own cousin if he thought he could enrich himself? Quite different from the bland but trustworthy best friend of the leading man he often plays. Ava Gardner may not be playing against type, but she is just so beautiful here - shiny hair, perfect bone structure, just one touch of Venus!
Dr. Mark Lucas (Mitchum), a poor researcher at Tulane, and Barbara Beaurevel (Gardner), a member of one of New Orleans' oldest, finest, and poorest families, are in love, but Barbara is always meeting him in secret. The reason is not exactly clear, unless she worries for her social reputation, but then again, what is so awful about being a medical researcher? Or maybe it is because her family wants her to marry a rich suitor. Mark goes away on a research trip for two months and comes back with a wife. This cuts Barbara to the core. Mark appears to have done this on the rebound because he has no satisfactory explanation. The wife is a cold fish who apparently would dump Mark if she found a richer or more exciting option. So why these two are together is puzzling.
Barbara wants to get Mark back, and for some reason she thinks getting her grandmother's inheritance, which has just been sitting around collecting dust for years, is the way to do that. Again, why? Mark apparently cares nothing for money. Maybe the best revenge is living well? But I digress. Barbara, with no more than her startling physical similarity to her grandmother, successfully collects her 900K inheritance from the trustee. But there is a catch. Grandma was a notorious woman. Grandma married a gambler who left her and their child for parts unknown. The insinuation is that Grandma became a prostitute or madame in New Orleans in order to get by. Like that has never happened before??? Oh the horror! So Barbara must keep her heritage and the source of her new found wealth a secret. And strangely, nobody outside of the family ever asks where the money came from.
Barbara does think she has found a way to get Mark back, and strangely enough it does require cash. But then her plan unexpectedly turns to tragedy. I'll let you watch and find out how this plays out.
I'd recommend this. I'd actually rate this at 6.5 if possible. Sure the script is moth eaten and the production code prevents the spelling out of the details of the original story, "Carriage", but Ava Gardner commands your attention as a woman scorned. It seems hard to believe, but she MUST have been scorned at one time to get the facial expressions down so pat. Melvyn Douglas injects some of his trademark wit into his largely despicable character so that he is more than just a two dimensional cliché.
