Le crime de Mme Lexton

Joan Fontaine stars as the villain in this Victorian era film. She convincingly plays the married woman who has a lover on the side and also sets her sights on a wealthy man, Miles Rushworth who is played by Herbert Marshall. Mr. Marshall is quite good as Miles. Miss Fontaine acted her part to perfection--she was at the same time cunning, calculating, innocent looking, frightened and charming. It takes an actress with extraordinary talent to pull that off. Joan Fontaine looked absolutely gorgeous in the elegant costumes by Travis Banton. Also in the film is Joan's mother, Lillian Fontaine as Lady Flora. I highly recommend this film.

I found this to be a very enjoyable melodrama.

The story is about how Joan Fontaine tries to rid herself of a husband and a lover in order to obtain a wealthy Englishman.

Solid performances by the supporting players are outstanding as is the lead performance of Joan Fontaine.

Also great were the costumes and the sets--very impressive and realistic, at least they looked that way to me.

I'm a sucker for these old black and white melodrama mysteries and I found this one to be one of the best ones.

Miss Fontaine's spectacular gowns were by Travis Banton, not Orry-Kelly, as your credits indicate. A previous commenter mentions that Ivy takes place in the 20s or 30's! This film is most DEFINITELY set in Victorian London, long before the roaring twenties. In any case, this is a dazzling and fascinating film to watch. Fontaine gives a multifaceted performance, and is much better than her sister would have been in the role. Olivia would have given it her usual first ladyish, sexless, to-the-manner-born touch. Joan, however, lets you know that her hold on these men is highly sexual, although no part of her body below her neck is exposed, other than her hands. Hats off to Una O'Connor in her bit as the seer. She is truly eerie and terrifying.

An excellent period murder melodrama, with Fontaine effectively playing against her earlier naive wallflower type, in a role that reportedly Olivia DeHavilland turned down. That's fine, because Fontaine is wonderful. Scripted by Charles Bennett, who had written for Hitchcock in the thirties and also later penned the excellent script for the classic British horror film Night of the Demon. The opening scene, where Ivy visits a sinister fortune teller played by the wonderful Una O'Connor (the screecher of James Whale fame), is a tour de force, and the film maintains interest throughout the numerous sinister machinations. I hope to see this film on DVD someday, but despair of that ever happening, because it seems to be an undeservedly obscure film. Fortunately I got to see it on AMC some seven or eight years ago, but have not seen since. Catch it if you can!

Joan Fontaine is in the title role of Ivy, a completely amoral social climber who when we meet her is juggling three different guys, husband Richard Ney, former lover Patric Knowles who can't get her out of his system, and her next interest the very rich Herbert Marshall. This girl Ivy, she really gets around.

When Marshall tells her he's not having any sex with another man's wife Fontaine sees her duty clear. She not only concocts an elaborate poisoning scheme for Ney, but Knowles the dope is still so in love with her that as a doctor he's also a natural suspect. He goes to trial and shields her. Knowles doesn't know about Marshall.

Ivy is a wonderful and moody Edwardian melodrama where the tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife. The cinematography is A+ in this film.

A key role is the methodical Scotland Yard Inspector Cedric Hardwicke who never bought Knowles as the guilty party. Hardwicke is almost Monk like in pursuit of the truth and justice.

The last 10 minutes or so contain some of Joan Fontaine's best work on the big screen as she realized the jig is up. All by herself with little or no dialog what a portrait of a woman trapped by her own deceit.

Ivy should be seen for that ending and for Cedric Hardwicke.