The Whole Truth

Once again GEORGE SANDERS is a cad who tries to set up STEWART GRANGER for the murder of Sander's unfaithful wife. DONNA REED is the pretty female lead, Stewart's loving wife, who cannot believe Granger is capable of murder and stands by him, for the most part, during the proceedings.

All of it is given stylish B&W photography, posh settings, a fairly interesting jazz score for the background music, and a couple of intriguing twists--but nothing really puts it over as anything more than a below average thriller. A feeling of deju vu sets in not long after the opening credits with Granger intent on proving himself an innocent man framed for murder.

DONNA REED almost sleepwalks through the role of the good wife, never blinking more than an eyelash at whatever revelations are being made about her husband's conduct. STEWART GRANGER handles his role with his usual authority and skill and GEORGE SANDERS is competent enough as the scheming killer.

But ultimately, it's a time waster, with nothing new to offer in the realm of suspense.

Though leading man Stewart Granger has occasionally played the heel in a few films, the greatest screen cad of all George Sanders dominates this film playing a very wounded cad. He's a publisher of religious textbooks married to that most unlikely of mates, the voluptuous movie star Gianna Marie Canale who has used her feminine wiles to get to the top of the film business. Her latest conquest is producer Stewart Granger who is a bit down in the mouth since wife Donna Reed left him.

The Whole Truth has Sanders planning a most methodical revenge against his wife and against Granger whom he sees as the pinnacle of all the men Canale cheated on him with. Sanders gives an academy award winning performance, even better than the Oscar winning one he got for All About Eve with the French police.

Though The Whole Truth is far from All About Eve it's a decent enough thriller with Hollywood's greatest cad dominating the proceedings.

A film producer accused of murdering the leading lady of his latest project must acquit himself and save his marriage. Stewart Granger was more than apt at the part of the producer and his relationship with Donna Reed (who plays the part of his wife) is full of fairly intelligent dialogue. George Sanders' character as the actual killer of the leading lady, who had totally humiliated him with her numerous affairs, makes convincing sense as the plot unfolds of an older man confronted with a marriage that's only evidence of matrimony was the worthless piece of paper the marriage certificate was written on. The ending is a bit of a stretch, but there are a lot of nice interior shots of the jet set enjoying a swanky party on the French Riviera where the story takes place.

Film Producer Max Poulton is having an affair with his leading lady, the hot tempered beauty, Gina Bertini. During a party one night, Max is visited by a man named Carliss, who claims to be from CID, and explains that Gina had been murdered, Gina later pops up at the party, what possible reason could Carliss have for lying?

Before I give an opnio, I'll start by saying I adore mysteries from the fifties and sixties, especially those from Durbridge, Hitchcock and Wallace, this is very much a film in their style. Expect suspense and intrigue, and several scenes to leave you scratching your head.

I really enjoyed it, a slick and stylish mystery, considering the amazing cast it doesn't particularly feel high budget, but the story and acting more than make up for it. It's is beautifully filmed, there is also some wonderful location work to enjoy. I even enjoyed the accompanying music, it fits the film well.

After a fast paced, exciting opening, the mystery really does begin, there are so many curious occurrences, but it's well plotted, and ultimately it's very satisfying.

I was mainly looking forward to seeing Stewart Grainger, and he's excellent, but the film was stolen by George Sanders. The whole cast do a fine job, the scene in The Cafe where Poulton learns from Carliss exactly what's going on is great.

8/10.

I rated this film 5/10 as it was no more than par for the course.The minute George Sanders appeared, I knew he was going to play another suave sophisticated villain as he has played in so many other films.Donna Reed must have been disappointed with her rather anodyne part and Stewart Granger does his best with the dialogue in the mediocre screenplay.

As far as I was concerned, the star of the film was the 1958 white Jaguar XK3 sports car.A few location shots around the south of France were seen but the rest was obviously shot in a film studio.The most farcical shot was a so called "car chase" that seemed to be wholly and claustrophobically shot on the film set where the cars seemed to be going round in circles around the artificial buildings!