Nozze infrante

Intriguing, but ultimately preposterous noir melodrama with a hysterical performance from Claudette Colbert. It's understandable that Colbert is upset. Her wedding to Robert Ryan is interrupted by a man saying she is already married. Several people back him up and it's pretty convincing. Ryan's having his doubts, and Colbert is doubting her own sanity. A murder takes place and it leads to a trial staged in two of the silliest courtroom scenes ever. The first half of the film is pretty good, thanks to the intrigue, but it can't sustain credibility. No spoilers on the outcome. Roy Webb is credited with an overwrought score, using a piano theme by Robert Schumann that we hear in variations -- the same tune that obsesses Joan Crawford throughout POSESSED (1947). There's some interest in the cast though: Paul Kelly, Paul Picerni, an uncredited Jose Ferrer (no relation to director Mel), Philip Ober and his then-wife Vivian Vance who is quite good in one of her few, but this time memorable, film parts before she became the immortal "Ethel Mertz".

The great acting of Claudette Colbert and Robert Ryan covers up in The Secret Fury a rather over the top melodramatic story with a really baffling conclusion. It will never be rated at the top ten of either Colbert and Ryan's film credits.

It sure begins ordinarily enough in fact rather amusingly as Ryan has a bit of trouble getting into his own wedding as he's in a suit and everyone else has a tuxedo (Ryan is carrying his tux) and no one will let him tell them he's the groom.

But when the minister asks if anyone has just cause why Colbert and Ryan should not wed, a stranger pushes in and says that Colbert is already married to his friend and he was best man at the wedding. The stranger is Dave Barbour and when they check on his story it seems true enough as Colbert can't provide a real reason not since on the day of 'wedding' she apparently spent it alone.

Later on the 'husband' is found dead in a closed room with Colbert and she's put on trial for murder and totally cracks up on the stand as the gaslighting is proving too much.

I can say this much without giving away the ending. Usually in films like this you will find Bob Ryan behind the evil scheme, but in this case he's stalwart and true and doesn't stop believing in Claudette. He continues sleuthing on his own and in the end the real villain is discovered with a motive that will leave you scratching your head.

This film will offer you the opportunity to see stage legend Jane Cowl as Colbert's aunt and Vivian Vance as a hotel maid in a role quite different than Ethel Mertz. Still it's the stars who put over a rather incredible and incredulous story for your viewing pleasure.

I was surprised, that ''The Secret Fury'' was an enjoyable good film...... Probably because, I didn't have any expectations for this movie..... Though, the film does have it's plot holes..... I would say, that you couldn't guess who was behind the whole scheme, until the very end of the movie..... At first, I thought, it was Robert Ryan, using the same method, like ''Gaslight'' where husband tries to drive his wife mad, but I was wrong...... The main problem, with the movie is, they drive at a whole other direction, which gave no clues at the beginning...... I thought, Robert Ryan & Claudette Colbert carried their parts well...... Plus, Vivian Vance, a fine character actress, who steals scenes in this one...... Those who like movies, that keeps you guessing, will like this one......

In the hands of lesser actors than Claudette Colbert and Robert Ryan this film could have become silly and trite. But, with these two experienced thespians leading the way, I found "Silent Fury" to be a most exciting and pleasurable little mystery. When their wedding is interrupted by a stranger who claims that Colbert is already married, and that he was best man at that wedding, one can sense that there is some sort of plot against her at work. As Colbert, Ryan, and her attorney set out to disprove the strangers claim of a prior marriage, they are met at every turn by more evidence that seems to reinforce the claim that she is indeed already wed. Although it's not very difficult to figure out just who the main "baddie" is, it's still lots of fun as the intensity and pace of the story increases. All in all, a good, solid mystery film with fine performances by the two leading actors and a fine supporting cast which includes the often underrated Paul Kelly.

The Secret Fury, in many ways a run-of-the-mill romantic suspense drama (directed by Mel Ferrer) boasts top-notch principals in Colbert and Ryan; it stays puzzling if not quite gripping until towards the end, when implausibility conquers suspension of disbelief -- as so often it does in this genre. But for some viewers the film's highlight will be the portrayal of blowsy Leah by Vivian Vance -- the immortal Ethel Mertz on "I Love Lucy." Oddly, Vance had very few film roles; her true home was Broadway, where (among other gigs) she understudied for Ethel Merman. Here she contributes a winning turn as a chambermaid suborned to play a minor part in a nefarious scheme; watch her half-heartedly trying to wave away the smoke when she's puffing a furtive cigarette in the hotel's linen-storage room -- a transgression for which she ultimately pays the supreme penalty.