La fossa dei peccati

Janet Frobisher (Bette Davis) is home when a strange man bursts into her home. George Bates (Gary Merrill) demands to know where Mr. Frobisher is but Janet is evasive. So, George explains that he and her husband were involved in a robbery and the husband killed someone...and he wants to get a hold of him in order to prove he didn't do the killing. But, it's too late, and Janet introduces George to her husband....and he's quite dead! It seems she was sick of the jerk and after slapping her around, she poisoned him! What an interesting pair we meet at the beginning of the picture!

As for George, he's not about to just leave and decides to stick around...telling folks he's Mr. Frobisher. Considering that none of the neighbors ever met the man, it's an easy ruse. And, he knows Janet won't betray him because he knows about that pesky dead body sitting in the study!

While I really enjoyed Merrill's and Davis' characters (both were deliciously evil) and I do recommend the film, it is not perfect. It was originally a play and it's pretty obvious since the film is very talky and a bit claustrophobic. But the ending...well...that makes up for a lot!

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.

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.

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'm sure it's all been done before, but if you are a Bette Davis fan like me, then you know that few do it better. A lovely-haired Davis and then-husband Gary Merrill play off of each other alternately uninterestingly or with fireworks, all in the same film. Merrill's performance is pretty uneven. I can't say I've seen too much of his work, but he's usually better than he is here, given the fact that his character is betrayed-angry-man-done-wrong. Here his performance lacks energy.

The double-crosses come thick and fast in this one, so the viewer must pay attention to the (sometimes quite good) dialog, or confusion may strike.

The other couple in the film, Larry and Chris (Anthony Steel and Barbara Murray) are bland to say the least. Steel is given more to do than Murray, and gives a semi-convincing performance as Bette's toy boy, but the character (as well as Murray's) is underwritten. The film is definitely a Davis vehicle, and she runs with the ball like the pro she is. Murray's lot is mostly stuck in reaction mode, but she does OK with what she has.

Goofy-looking Emlyn Williams plays pesty-neighbor-from-hell Dr. Henderson decently, and looks as though he is having a ball doing so. The Mr. Bigley character, representing, I suppose, a colorful local type, comes across as dense and reprehensible. What were the writers thinking there, I wonder.

The plot takes elements from various scenarios that we've all seen, and the result is not extremely coherent, yet very entertaining. The directing is great, with some wonderful shots. I enjoyed the film throughout.

I especially like the ending, and its retribution – as Davis' character says (something along the lines of): `thanks, I hadn't thought of that idea, but it'll work out fine.' Oh, the irony.

Bottom line: its strengths overcome its weaknesses – there are much worse ways to spend an hour and a half.