Movie Mini-Review: Another Man's Poison

[litlover12]

(For movie_greats.)

In 1950, Bette Davis and Gary Merrill starred in All about Eve, winner of six Academy Awards and an entry on many prestigious "best-of" lists (and my own obscure one). The next year -- now a married couple -- they starred in Another Man's Poison, which has largely been forgotten. It's not too hard to understand why.

When the movie aired on TCM recently, host Ben Mankiewicz said that Bette took this British project because it had a leading role for Merrill. He plays George Bates, who shows up one night at the home of mystery novelist Janet Frobisher (Davis) and demands to see her estranged husband, George Preston. It seems that the two men were involved in a bank robbery (maybe they were members of a criminal syndicate exclusively for men named George?), and then Preston took off, leaving Bates holding the bag. Janet has a nasty little surprise for him. Preston is there . . . but he's dead. She poisoned him that very morning, after he showed up and resorted to his old abusive ways.

But instead of being deterred, George Bates sees an opportunity. He declares he'll stay there and pose as Janet's husband, whom no one in the village knows. And before she can stop him, he's done just that, introducing himself as Preston to Janet's neighbor Henderson (Emlyn Williams), who's the veterinarian for Janet's beloved horse, Fury. Things snowball from there, as Janet and George, forced together by the unsavory circumstances, each keep trying to gain an advantage over the other, playing a game with increasingly dangerous stakes. At the same time, Janet is trying to conceal from everyone her affair with Larry (Anthony Steel), the fiance of her secretary, Chris (Barbara Murray).

I don't know if one could accurately call this film "British noir," but at times it certainly had the look of it, with its dark and spooky visuals. Too dark and spooky, sometimes. The night scenes in particular were so murky-looking that I kept thinking of a line from Mystery Science Theater 3000: "This scene was filmed through chocolate milk." And there were a lot of night scenes. The bleak look of the setting was accentuated by Davis's decision (or someone's decision) not to pretty herself up; she looks every bit of her age or more, as so few female stars her age (43) have dared to do, and the look reflects the harshness of her character and the story.

There's no doubt, in fact, that this was Bette Davis's film. Of course she was always a powerhouse, but in many other films -- like Eve -- she had a strong supporting cast to work with. This time she pretty much has to carry things alone, for Merrill shows the limitations of his range as an actor here. He uses the exact same bag of tricks to portray the desperate, cunning fugitive that he had used to play the brilliant, sardonic stage director the year before -- the same expressions, gestures, and mannerisms -- and it naturally doesn't work nearly as well. (It doesn't help matters that the Eve comparison is also brought to mind by Barbara Murray as Chris, as she looks like the love child of Anne Baxter and Celeste Holm.) Emlyn Williams as Henderson isn't bad, but the character strains credulity, as he prowls around doing amateur detective work and, for some unfathomable reason, routinely showing every card in his hand to Bates. In a more realistic film, he'd have been bumped off halfway through.

The script is full of little glitches and problems like that, which ultimately weaken it. Yet it also has its strengths. It's fascinating to watch Janet and George keep trying to one-up each other with lies, threats, and carefully staged "accidents," wondering where they'll take it next and just how far they'll dare to go. And if Merrill's performance isn't all one could wish for, Davis's is wondrously multifaceted, as she reveals first Janet's willfulness and passionate nature, and later, gradually, her callousness and cruelty. I think the film could have done a bit more with her career as a mystery novelist -- it's a factor, but not what I'd call a major one. But in any case, it couldn't have asked for a stronger, more committed leading lady. The final image of her, as the film draws to a conclusion that, looking back, seems inevitable, is enough to chill your blood and linger in your mind long afterwards.

The film may not have been among her best, but as always, Bette Davis gave it her all, and that makes Another Man's Poison worth watching at least once.

Comments

[spiderorchid81.livejournal.com]

Those are the best. ^_^ I think with a really good movie (or book) it shouldn't matter if you know how it ends. If it's well-crafted and the characters are interesting it's always fun to see it again. I have some favourites where I know every line and I still enjoy re-watching them.