A Woman's Secret (1949)

Very well executed

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Director Nicholas Ray's Soapy and Flippant Flop is one of His Lesser Known and Lesser Accomplished Films. It Looks Great and so do Gloria Grahame and Maureen O'Hara. But the Movie is All Over the Place in Terms of Tone and Style Incorporating Dull Songs (quite a few), Sloppy Motivations, and Flashbacks to Tell a Story that in the End, Few will Care About.Melvyn Douglas is Miscast as is Victor Jory. Surprisingly the Most Entertaining Part of the Film, other than Looking at the Female Beauties, is the Sharp and Sarcastic Dialog Between a Police Detective (J.C. Flippen) and His Amateur Sleuthing Wife.It's All Professionally Done and is a Mediocre Melodrama with Ill Fitting but Enjoyable Comedy Bits. Not a Film-Noir Although Many Categorize it as such because they had Hoped and Wanted it to be, but not even in a Stretch should this be Considered Despite its Inclusion of some Genre Ingredients.

No need to recap the plot, which I couldn't do anyway. In fact, just what the screenplay is aiming at may be the movie's biggest secret. Is it a mystery—well no, since early on the camera shows Marian (O'Hara) pulling the trigger. Is it a noir—hardly, since the atmosphere is pretty conventional. Is it a love story (a Ray specialty)—well maybe, except who loves whom is not always clear. Sure, a movie doesn't have to be pigeon-holed to be good. But the trouble here is that Secret is simply too muddled to fit anywhere, and that's despite a luminescent turn from the incomparable Gloria Grahame.Director Ray was especially expert at getting triumphs from love story actresses—Cathy O'Donnell, Allene Roberts, Natalie Wood, et al. No wonder Grahame fell for him in real life. However, critics are right: Jory and Douglas are both a shade too old (circa, 50) for 20-something O'Hara and Grahame. Plus, pity poor Bill Williams whose one-note, unnecessary part suggests he wandered onto the wrong set. Then there's the ill- advised comedy relief from the cop's wife that erupts half-way through as if some studio higher-up suddenly intervened.Hard to believe cult director Ray had anything to do with this muddle. Clearly, he only went through the motions, probably as a result of an unwanted studio assignment (RKO). Too bad. But, I doubt anyone could have salvaged such confused material.

A WOMAN'S SECRET is a melodramatic noir style mystery based on a Vicki Baum story, played in florid fashion by MAUREEN O'HARA, MELVYN DOUGLAS and GLORIA GRAHAME, all of whom are a bit over-the-top under Nichols Ray's direction.O'Hara is the tough ex-singer promoter of the singing career of Grahame, and plays some of her argumentative moments as though she's Joan Crawford brandishing a gun in "Mildred Pierce". She gives the whole part a surface temperament of angry emotions that doesn't quite ring true, alternating with sweeter moments. She does get a chance to demonstrate her pleasant singing voice, unlike Grahame who is dubbed.After confessing to shooting Grahame during a heated argument over Gloria's decision to quit her career, she tells her story in flashback. Her good friend, MELVYN DOUGLAS, also fills in some of her background with another flashback, a la "Mildred Pierce" and "Laura" techniques.Douglas is a piano accompanist who refers to Grahame's singing voice as "a voice with hormones". He has some clever lines and plays the film's most believable character. BILL WILLIAMS shows up midway through the story as Grahame's friend (in a wasted role) who's anxious to see that O'Hara gets punishment for shooting Grahame. "I hope they hang her!" Unfortunately, it's also at the midway point that the story starts to lose interest, as the mystery is slow to clear up and the story rambles on with still another flashback full of exposition by Douglas about past events.A tighter script without all the flashbacks and a more direct way of telling the story might have made for improvements. As it is, it has a promising start but loses its way, stumbling in a strand of back stories long before any final explanation is given.

By coincidence this is the second movie written by Mank's big brother Herman that I've watched in two days - courtesy of my good friend in France - and it's light years ahead of the first, Christmas Holiday and in yet another coincidence both movies were adapted by Mank from novels by heavy hitters, respectively Somerset Maugham and Vicki Baum. For this entry someone should coin a new term; slightly bizarre noir, which is what it is. At first glance we seem to be verging on Mildred Pierce territory inasmuch as an argument is followed by a gunshot and a confession which has to be as phony as a nine-dollar bill. On paper this is a film of about as mismatched talents as you could get, on paper at least. Who would ever associate Maureen O'Hara with Nicholas Ray? or cast her as Myrna Loy to Melvyn Douglas' William Powell? And, if it comes to that, who could envisage Jay C. Flippen and Victor Jory in the same film let alone a film that already has O'Hara and Douglas aboard, to say nothing of Gloria Graham who plays Estrellita as if she'd been told to effect a cross between Gracie Allen and Marilyn Monoro - although Monroe had yet to establish her persona in 1949 despite three or four small roles. Mank's script is pithy and droll, full of collectables such as 'What are you doing for dinner?' 'Eating', and, 'I just won another bet, they don't say "Where Am I?"'. If you believe Melvyn Douglas as a piano player-song-plugger you'll believe anything, even that Gloria Graham can carry a tune in a Louis Vuitton purse (she was dubbed, natch) but this time around it's fairly easy to suspend disbelief (since when, for example, have cops wives been allowed to sit in on investigations) and along the way we get to hear the elusive verse to 'Paradise' so really what more do you want.