This Is My Love (1954)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Just as birds descended from dinosaurs, so the film noir of the forties morphed by the mid-fifties into the women's picture; the histrionics of the Technicolor 'Leave Her to Heaven' (1945) evolving into Douglas Sirk's throbbing fifties melodramas.Occasional additional forays into Technicolor along the way in crime dramas like 'Desert Fury' (1947) and 'Rope' (1948) gave hints as to the way colour could embellish thriller material; and the fuzzy Pathécolor employed on 'This Is My Love' - along with the incredibly stagy sets - draws us gradually into what initially seems to promise to be a rather bland romantic drama, but proves anything but. The presence of Dan Duryea warns us that peril lies ahead - and the fact that he's in a wheelchair, in which he proves a pretty nifty mover - simply heightens the pent-up menace he brings to his part. (And wouldn't you know it, he depends on medication administered by his long-suffering wife and sister-in-law to keep him alive?) Practically everybody in the film turns to be nursing bottled up emotions threatening destructively to burst their banks in true 50's style, and... but I won't spoil it for you. Worth seeing.

Directed by Stuart Heisler {The Glass Key} and starring Linda Darnell {Vida Dove}, Faith Domergue {Evelyn Dove/Myer}, Dan Duryea {Murray Myer} & Rick Jason {Glenn Harris}, This Is My Love is a Noirish potboiler dealing in sexual repression, deception, heartbreak, sibling strife and murder. All of which sounds like the film should be a most potent piece of work, sadly the film never rises above being a ponderously paced story that's devoid of a blood pumping heart.It's a shame this vastly underachieves as a drama since the performances of the three principal actors are very strong, especially Darnell, who as Vida Dove neatly blends a smouldering sexuality with a tinted confusion of the life she is leading. Based on Hugh Brooke's story, Fear Has Black Wings, This Is My Love is filmed in Pathécolor and theatrically released out of RKO. Never released on DVD and mostly forgotten by all but Darnell/Duryea purists, Heisler's film hints at being far more intriguing than it actually is. It's not so much that one finds themselves waiting for a plot spark that never arrives, it's the overriding feeling that the finale here will be a let down. The very nature of the piece telegraphs where these characters will end up, thus rendering the ending the damp squib it ultimately is.It's a testament to Darnell, Domergue and Duryea that they have given the characters some substance, managing to hold the viewers attention span by way of their craft. One scene as Darnell's Vida shouts down at the wheelchair bound Murray is worth sitting thru the movie for. But it's a rare moment of heat raising as the tepid screenplay, staid direction and the woefully bland performance of Rick Jason swamp any chance of movie ignition. There's some value with Franz Waxman's score, and Connie Russell popping in to sing the title song is a bonus. But much like the sisters Vida & Evelyn Dove in the picture, I too felt boxed in, and that is something I'm sure the makers wasn't aiming for. 4/10

Warning: possible spoilers.I hope that anyone contemplating watching this film does not judge it solely on the weight of the other review. It is a compelling and interesting tale, one you would like if you were a fan of films such as Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and the like."Darnell has a fiance, but she keeps putting marriage off so she can write her fantasies" is what she would have most people believe. The fact is that she does not love poor Eddie, so therefore how can she marry him? She was once in love with Murray, her sister's cantankerous paraplegic husband and she went with Eddie as if to soften the blow of losing Murray, to show everyone that she was fine."the same song is played far too many times as Rick tries to make love to Darnell" - Rick never tries it on Darnell. He kisses her once but only the once because she pushes him away. And after that, he meets her sister Evelyn and it becomes apparent that she is the girl he loves, not Vida (Darnell). If anything, he uses Vida to get to Evelyn!The character Vida is quite a fascinating one. She seems such a sweet and shy little thing and even when she reveals her dark side by filling Murray's medecine bottle with poison you're on her side. She's just had a verbal war with him where all he could do was laugh in her face as she broke down, and when she sits on her bed with a bottle of sleeping pills, you really worry she's going to off herself - who'd blame her?I would highly recommend this movie to anyone, whether you are a fan of any of the actors or otherwise. I had never even seen any of the 5 leads in any of their other films (to my recollection), and I still thoroughly enjoyed it. If you don't mind a complex drama where you have to use your mind a little, then guaranteed you'll enjoy it also.

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I hate to say any film is terrible, but this one almost fits the bill. Linda Darnell and Faith Domergue are sisters; Darnell single but engaged, and Domergue married to Dan Duryea, a dancer who was in a bad car accident and is now a paraplegic. They own a restaurant, where all the plot lines conveniently converge.Everything about the film screams early 50's potboiler/soap opera, and everything in the film is written to conveniently accommodate the plotline, which was outdated even then: Duryea was a fabulous, sexy dancer (which was the only reason Domergue could find to love him), but is now confined to a wheelchair and vents his anger on everyone he sees, setting up the plot point for her to have an affair; Darnell has a fiance, but she keeps putting marriage off so she can write her fantasies; Darnell's fiance brings a friend, Rick Jason, to meet her, and then just happens to go off and leave the two of them alone numerous times, pointedly making references about how the friend is going to steal his girl; the same song is played far too many times as Rick tries to make love to Darnell; the list of coincidences just goes on and on.Rick Jason gives a thoughtful, restrained performance in only his 3rd film role, and is the one good thing about this movie. Everyone else in the film seems to have gotten their Masters degree from the Bill Shatner School of Overacting, and passed all their classes with flying colors. And, in a film crowded with hamminess, Dan Duryea wins the award for most flagrant, over-the-top performance in any film, ever; he yells, grimaces, convulses, accuses his wife of infidelity in a shrill falsetto voice, uses his wheelchair to dance to a sonata while everyone watches in intense discomfort (the audience included), and does god knows what else to make the film a virtual nightmare to endure.If you are a fan of any of these actors, and especially Jason, you can probably sit through this film and enjoy it on a minimal level. Anyone else will never make it, and if they do they deserve an award of their own. It's unavailable on video or anywhere else, which is a blessing in disguise and is completely understandable once you see the film.