Alimony (1949)

Absolutely Fantastic

A Masterpiece!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The film begins with Dan talking to Mr. Klinger about the exploits of Klinger's daughter, Kitty. What follows is a very lengthy flashback. It seems that Kitte was interested in getting rich fast. She worked for a while as a girl who would help blackmailers. When a mark came into the room with her along, she'd strip off much of her clothes and grab the guy...while her partner snapped incriminating photos! Tired of this racket, she now set her mind to bigger game and eventually this meant Dan. While Dan was happily dating Linda, Kitty schemed to seduce him away from her...all because she thought Dan was destined for riches. And, when this didn't pan out and Dan's musical career didn't appear to be paying off, she dropped him and was on to the next scheme. In many ways, this is like the great Pre-Code film, "Red-Headed Woman"...but more sanitized and without the great style of this earlier film. Now I am not saying it's bad...but "Red-Headed Woman" is so amazing and entertaining that it's no disgrace to not be as good as this scandalous film. Overall, a decent low-budget film...enjoyable because Kitty is so darn awful!By the way, the landlady in the film is Marie Blake (also known by the stage name 'Blossom Rock'). That's Jeanette MacDonald's older sister...and Grandmama from the TV show "The Addams Family".

Alimony is a cheapie from the short lived Eagle-Lion Studios and it has some shoddy editing and a cop out ending. But the story is not a bad one and some interesting players give some nice performances. The whole thing is narrated by John Beal who is now a successful composer telling Paul Guilfoyle, the father of Martha Vickers about his daughter who was just released from prison. It's not stuff a father wants to hear about his daughter.Beal is married to Hillary Brooke and at one time all three were boarders at Marie Blake's rooming house. Brooke is the good girl and Vickers who was best known for being Lauren Bacall's sister in The Big Sleep is the bad one.Vickers is the inspiration for a hit song that Beal wrote for his first big break. She latches on to him, but this is a girl who keeps her options open.One of those options is an Alimony racket. She's the come on in staging phony situations for bottom feeding divorce attorney Douglass Dumbrille. It's what leads to her downfall.Dumbrille really does this part with relish. He's the poster child for shyster attorneys. Clearly the best one in the film. There's also a nice performance by Leonid Kinskey who is Beal's agent.This one considering its defects is not too bad. Maybe at Warner Brothers with Bette Davis and Olivia DeHavilland in the parts that Vickers and Brooke have this might have been a good film. Certainly a major studio might have corrected the defects present here.

This sensationalist, almost sleazy, certainly cheap cautionary tale has been offered a good cast: Martha Vickers plays the adventuress, Hillary Brooke the endearing wife, Dumbrille has a supporting part, Leonid Kinskey plays the kind impresario, Beal is the hesitant songwriter, whose switch to the temptress comes mostly from his habituation with the concubine he knew from their childhood; conveniently, the script skips Linda's fight for her husband, who only comes back to her a 2nd time because his muse Kitty kicks him again. If the facts seem plausible, the script is meager. Genuine tenderness inspires songs less good than those given by infatuation. Anyway, the songwriter's breakthrough should of been the show that got canceled (while he was celebrating with his newfound muse).Martha plays convincingly a seductress, who's not heartless, wicked or mean, but shallow, groundless, misguided, more of a deluded girl, the shapely Hillary Brooke plays a dependable, reliable woman, the domestic muse, who won't inspire hits, but songs that earn a modest living.Kitty makes an attempt at good living: 1st by trying modeling, where she resents being manhandled, etc., then by taking part briefly in a frame-up business, with a crooked lawyer, afterward she shares in the songwriter's sudden fame; she even claims being fond of the tycoon she married, the industrialist, and it was a leading role for the actress, though the script offers no one a good role. The script is obviously interested mainly in the social trend, not in the characters or drama.The storyline for an exploitation movie was ready; with a good script and a better director, this one could of been a drama.

If you can get past the sappy ending and a few plot stretches, this is a pretty good programmer. Seems Dan's (Beal) a struggling songwriter who takes inspiration from Kitty (Vickers) such that he comes up with a popular hit. Trouble is he's had a long relationship with good girl Linda (Brooke) that now comes unglued as Kitty schemes to get a share of the windfall. Thus the narrative follows the romantic and calculating travails of the boardinghouse trio.It's a cheap production. However, the acting is good even if the story seldom leaves movie sets. This is a chance to catch two of the 40's premier vixens in the same frame. Brooke is cast against type, all sweetness and light, yet managing to bridge the strained abruptness of Linda's romantic turnarounds. At the same time, Vickers hides her scheming under a pretty face that's hard to resist. To me, the non-handsome Beal is perfect for the beleaguered composer, his disheveled appearance quite appropriate to the role. And too bad this was the only screen appearance of Laurie Lind (Helen) whose mop of hair and distinctive looks are career worthy. Then too, it's a colorful touch casting the so-called mad-Russian, Leonid Kinskey, as the harried music producer. He lends an exotic contrast to the more conventional others. It's also worth noting how radio dominates the movie's entertainment scene. However, 1949 was a year when TV was making inroads into the popular media including film, but no hint of that here. Anyway, the distinctive cast makes this contrived story worth a look-see.