Basehart is highly unconvincing. I'm not convinced he could be in the picture business nor that he's sexually involved with the US tart and the very frumpy English wife.
Cardboard sets.
And poor Livesey and Cummings have nothing to do. There's 'an Old Mother Goose' playing a costumier at the 20 minute mark.
I agree, but only partially. I think Basehart turns in his usual great
performance (if, sadly, overplaying to compensate for a lousy script),
but is limited by the flaws you mention (and lousy direction).
I, too, don't believe for a minute that he's married to this stuffy,
plain English woman, who almost looks like his mother. Basehart really
has no chemistry with any of the women here, which is unfortunate, given
he was a very sexy actor (and Mary Murphy was such a beauty).
Another thing that hurts this film is the silly English setting. This
should've had a Hollywood setting, rather than an English one. A dog
of a movie, and rightly forgotten.
Both your comments are kind of crazy. I suppose you think certain types of people, like the flabby and frumpy, don't have affairs. Some people have no test and will fool around with anyone who will have them.
Also, what's that about the setting being all wrong. Do people in England not have affairs or get approached by weirdos? I don't know how a Hollywood, or any other, setting would have made any difference in the movie. In fact, they made a point of saying he was in England to start a new life. He left California for New York but that wasn't working so he went to England.
My biggest problem with the movie is it didn't make sense. I could have accepted all the other aspects of the movie but I feel there was a huge plot hole. Wilson may have wanted to clear his name but Evelyn's repeated contact was starting to drive him crazy. That should have been dealt with first.
When he went to the police he shouldn't have had to prove anything. He should have simply said something like: Officer this women is lying and has been harassing me for some time. I don't know her, I've never met her until today and I want this to stop immediately. You can believe whatever you want but I wish to be left alone so please ask her to leave me alone.
Even if there really had been an affair, she had no right to annoy the guy. It was he said-she said; if she was right they had had an affair that he was denying. If he was right she was a very disturbed women, maybe even a psycho, mental case who could be capable of anything; including harming him. That's how the police should have approached it.
Wilson could have solved the puzzle after that - or not. It was his association with Evelyn that made things worse with his wife. She seemed to want to believe him but he blew it.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]