Cet âge dangereux

Myrna Loy stars as Lady Brooke in this British drama about a woman who accompanies her sick husband to convalesce in Italy, leaving behind her lover (Richard Greene). After a poison pen letter arrives, warning the husband (Roger Livesey) about his wife, Loy has to think past and makes up a story that Greene is actually in love with their daughter (Peggy Cummins). But things take a turn for the worst when both the daughter and the lover arrive in Italy.

Loy encourages Greene to go along with the charade while he's in Italy, but she doesn't count on two things: 1 that Cummins is secretly in love with Greene, and 2 that the opal necklace he gives her will prove to be unlucky.

Loy swallows a bitter pill when Greene, after being pushed into Cummins' company, falls for her. Back in London after Livesey has recovered, a cocktail party is thrown where Livesey's bitter and drunk sister (Margaret Withers) spills the beans (but not her drink) about Loy's relationship with Greene and all hell breaks loose.

The four stars are quite good in this romantic drama, though the ending may be a bit of a stretch.

In her only foreign film Myrna Loy stars as an unfaithful wife to barrister Roger Livesey. While he's working hard Loy has been carrying on with her husband's partner Richard Greene. And then in an effort to keep Greene within her reach she tries to set him up with her stepdaughter Peggy Cummins.

It's always been fascinating to me about how the British are so civilized about infidelity. The only time it gets real is during a party scene when all the secrets are spilled.

This quartet of players makes it all work somehow. That Dangerous Age will nevr make the top 20 of Myrna Loy's films.

Roger Livesey is a renowned barrister who has gone blind. His doctor says that it could become permanent if he doesn't take a good, long vacation, so he, wife Myrna Loy, and his daughter from his firs marriage, Peggy Cummins, head off to Capri. Eventually Livesey's partner, Richard Greene, follows, and begins to court Miss Cummins, who is quite besotted with him. Miss Loy is the perfect wife and nurse to her husband, but gossip, unbeknownst to Livesey, is quite accurate in that she has been carrying on an affair with Greene which, she tells him, is now ended. But is the gossip?

It's a rare foreign film for Miss Loy, and she is, unsurprisingly, excellent in the role; director Gregory Ratoff gets fine performances from all the cast. He had wanted to film this in the 1930s at Fox, but undoubtedly had found it impossible to get through the Hays Office. What shows up on the screen attempts to handle the matter sensitively, but I found it a bit confused in its points, given that no one wished to be the villain in this piece. With Elizabeth Allan and a score that insists on quoting from Offenbach's Baccarole.

If you thought Something's Gotta Give had a bit of a sick storyline, you won't want to rent If This Be Sin. If you like your romances with messy triangles that don't respect family boundaries, you might enjoy this naughty romp.

Myrna Loy is married to Roger Livesey, and when he has a collapse, the doctor orders him to take off work and rest in Capri for six months, lest he become permanently blind. Why he has to rent an oceanfront villa is beyond me, since he can't enjoy the view - but I guess that's beside the point. The real point comes when Myrna is reading his mail to him. He gets an anonymous letter informing him that his wife is having an affair with his best friend. Instead of pretending the letter was a bill, or instead of thinking quickly and making up false contents of the letter, Myrna actually reads it to her blind husband. Why would she do such a thing? He goes into a rage and believes the accusation, and Myrna once again, acts incredibly stupidly. She blurts out that the rumor has to be false because (are you ready?) his best friend is actually having an affair with his daughter. Is that the worst excuse you've ever heard?

I didn't enjoy this one, even though I usually like complex love triangles. I just couldn't get behind this one, probably because the mess could have been so easily avoided at the start of the movie. Feeling sorry for Myrna was tough, since she created the situation for herself. Hoping Peggy Cummins would end up with her father's friend wasn't really in her best interest, I felt. You can give this movie a try if you want to, but it's not high on my list.

This film has not to my knowledge been shown in the UK since its release. This would imply that it is bad film,which it is not. An interesting quartet of stars act their hearts out. The American version that I saw has lost 26 minutes from the original version.