A cad and a blackguard, more commonly known as a love rat these days.
I don't think it's misogynistic, the main credited writer is a woman....
I thought Crawford appeared quite wooden and unconvincing in this role, I know she was capable of far better.
Perhaps it was poor direction, or the lack of a motive for the fixation upon Van Heflin's character.
I found my mind wandering throughout the film, and it took several goes before I could get my teeth into it; not a good sign with such great actors in a film.
Speaking simply, Heflin's character had discovered he could sleep with women and not marry them, and there was nothing much they could do about it. I found the character smarmy, condescending, untrustworthy, secretive and self-centered, caring little or nothing for those women with whom he trifled. The sort of person who goes through life and never marries, as he doesn't really want to. His "real" relationships are with men, and women, for him, are more of an entertainment and an amusement. He wouldn't dare annoy Massey's character, but would push him for a desperately wanted job all the same while secretly toying with Louise from downstairs. He had no real interest in Carol Graham either, and should not have led her on for such a length of time; he used the Grahams and just pursued those around for what was in it for David.
Perhaps that kind of aloofness and cavalier attitude is attractive to some women, or maybe he was just good in bed - but I found Louise to be obsessed, fixated, duplicitous, stifling cloying and clinging to a man who quite frankly asked her to let him go. In being cruel to be kind, he just should have faded away and left the Graham family to their devices, but being somewhat of a user he hung around a bit too long and when the opportunity of marrying into the family (and it's money)eventuated, his only real moral dilemma was "solved" by him deciding to separate Carol from her money, and he hung around just that little bit too long, like a moth finally settling onto a globe and being consumed by it's own instinct to get what it wants.
Everyone is awarded their just desserts and the rest of us go on with our lives following the moral "lessons" we have just learned....
At 108 minutes its too long and slow moving, I began to feel impatient as the film seemed to meander it's way around any real reasons for Louise being so peculiar around Dean Graham, and literally deconstructing around David. It took too long to draw the threads together and a good 18 to 25 minutes' reduction would have brought the story to it's denouement and climax at a better pace, with just a hint around the Hays code as to why Louise just couldn't live without David, and why he just wasn't interested in anything more than a plaything to while away his non-engineering hours. Raymond Massey's Dean Graham seemed to stumble around like a blind man without a cane, and had no sense or intuition as to what was going on around him, while being a massively successful multi-millionaire and an astute businessman.
Not Ms Crawford's finest but we'll never know the reasons why...
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SteverB
9 years ago
Your assessment of David is correct, however, he was a bit worse than a cad. We don't know what happened before the first flashback between Louise and David; he only mentions later that he "fell out of love with her." It's difficult to believe, observing his character, that he would have ever been in love with her at all.
On Crawford, I have seen plenty of wooden Crawford performances and this simply wasn't one of them. My opinion, of course, but it was great to run into this film on TCM. I'd never seen it and was pleasantly surprised by the genuineness of her performance. The diva that you hear she was, wasn't in evidence her. Her psychosis was believable without being over the top. I know that the Oscars have become a political joke, but back in the 40s they meant something. Crawford was only nominated for three Oscars for Best Actress and this was one of them.
Massey was adequate in his role. No real complaints about the performances. I loved this film!
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