Le crime de Mme Lexton

Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland were sisters - both beautiful, both with a very sweet quality. Yet Joan more than Olivia was given roles that called for a somewhat manipulative side.

Ivy from 1947 is Joan, gorgeous in Victorian costumes, playing Ivy, a married woman with a boyfriend on the side (Patric Knowles). She and her husband (Richard Ney) are broke and keeping up a pretense with their socieity friends.

Ivy wants money, and when she meets the elegant Miles Rushworth (Herbert Marshall), she decides he's the one for her. He is attracted to her, which is a help. One night, he kisses her, and then apologizes profusely for kissing a married woman. So Ivy will have to do something about that. Maybe she can get rid of the husband and the lover at the same time.

Really terrific film with a wonderful performance by Fontaine, who could be so demure and yet a viper underneath.

Sumptuous atmosphere and, as mentioned, costumes. It's an absorbing film.

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.

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.

Loved Joan. Great performance. What isn't she good in. I watched this film and then Jane Eyre right after... she just keeps getting better. My heart was racing. Great old movie drama. Just what i want from a classic movie. Facial expressions are worth the whole film. I'm glad i have it on video. Don't know what more you need in a film. Beautiful woman....wealth..... greed.....murder....detectives......a trial.....

The costumes are very nice. Makes me wonder what the budget was for this movie? Wish they still made films like this. Whenever they try they just seem to make a cheesy movie. Films in black and white still hold a certain mystery.

Poor Ivy: Though to the manner born, she had the bad luck to marry a charming wastrel (Richard Ney). As the movie is set in the 20s or 30s, when rigid Victorian ideas of class were starting to fray at the edges, this uncertain status vexes her unduly. The Gretorexes (for so they are called) don't know where their next shilling is coming from but there are yachting parties and fancy-dress balls in posh pleasaunces aplenty to tempt her. When Ivy (Joan Fontaine) makes the acquaintance of a wealthy older gent (Herbert Marshall, who must have been born middle-aged), she sets one of her extravant chapeaux for him. Luckily, one of the beaux she still strings along (Patric Knowles) is a physician whose consulting rooms provide a cache of poison, with which she bids her hubby farewell. The fact that it implicates Knowles doesn't phase her a bit, even as the hours trickle by until he should be hanged by the neck until dead. The turning of the plot depends on police inspector Sir Cedric Hardwicke; Knowles' mother (the redoubtable Lucile Watson); and Knowles' loyal housekeeper (Una O'Connor). Sam Wood adds some subtle touches to this well above average melodrama; Fontaine's luminous face supplies the rest.