Probably because of its similarity to Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion" (1941) and George Cukor's "Gaslight" (1944), this Gothic noir was given a rough ride by the critics and didn't do very well commercially. Its story of murder, adultery and blackmail was based on Martin Vale's successful stage play of the same name, and like the two aforementioned movies, features a "woman in danger". It's significant for being the only film in which Humphrey Bogart and Barbara Stanwyck starred together and is also interesting to watch because both stars play roles that are quite different from those for which they are best known.During a two-week stay in Scotland, an artist and an heiress meet and fall in love. A problem arises when Sally Morton (Barbara Stanwyck) finds a letter addressed to the wife of her new beau and to her surprise, Geoffrey Carroll (Humphrey Bogart) readily admits that he has an invalid wife and a young daughter. After this revelation, Sally decides, without hesitation, to end their relationship. Geoffrey (posing as Mr Fleming), then purchases some poison from a London pharmacist called Horace Blagdon (Barry Bernard) and sends his daughter Bea (Ann Carter) away to school, so that he can concentrate on caring for his wife whose portrait he has painted as the "Angel of Death".Two years after their first meeting and following the death of the artist's wife, Geoffrey and Sally are happily married and living together with Bea, in the cathedral town called Ashton. During this period, Geoffrey doesn't have the type of inspiration that he needs to produce his best work and so, when Sally's ex-fiancé Charles "Penny" Pennington (Patrick O'Moore) and two of his American acquaintances, the wealthy Mrs Latham (Isobel Elsom) and her attractive daughter Cecily (Alexis Smith) call by, Geoffrey is rather irritable. His mood doesn't improve when Cecily says how impressed she was by his recent one-man show in London and asks if he would paint her portrait. He immediately refuses but later changes his mind because Blagdon has discovered his real identity and has started to blackmail him.When they work together on the new portrait, Cecily and Geoffrey fall in love and the beginning of their affair marks the point at which Sally's health suddenly deteriorates. She becomes weak and bedridden with a complaint that the local doctor diagnoses as an attack of nerves. Sally, however, begins to fear for her life when she learns that her symptoms mirror those suffered by the first Mrs Carroll shortly before her death and also discovers a painting (which Geoffrey had kept hidden from her) of herself as the "Angel of Death". As Sally becomes ever-more suspicious of the contents of the nightly glasses of milk that Geoffrey brings her, Cecily starts to demand that her lover should run away with her to South America and Blagdon's blackmail demands become greater. The pressure of all this on Geoffrey then becomes intolerable and provokes him into the irrational actions that follow.One of this movie's greatest assets is its collection of colourful characters. The maid who works in the Carrolls' residence is incredibly impertinent, ill-mannered and full of snide remarks, the doctor who attends to Sally is a bumbling alcoholic who's clearly incompetent and Penny keeps hanging around because he's still obsessed with Sally. Geoffrey's daughter Bea is about 10-years-old, very prim and proper and exceptionally precocious and because of this, some of her comments take on an extra edge. Examples of this are when she says to her father "I know you'll do whatever is best for mother" and when talking to Penny about the portrait of her mother as the "Angel of Death", she remarks (with a dead-pan expression) that "father says it's representational".The movie's real showstopper however, is Cecily whose conduct is incredibly inappropriate at times and outrageously funny. She's a shameless schemer who's determined to seduce Geoffrey and after he initially refuses to paint her portrait, Sally says that "people must suggest ideas to him before he paints them". Cecily turns to Geoffrey and says "Oh, and don't I suggest an idea to you?" to which he replies "yes, but nothing I'd care to paint".Bogart, Stanwyck and the rest of the cast all turn in great performances, the cinematography is especially good and the atmosphere becomes decidedly creepy at times. There's more humour than is normally found in this type of movie and overall, it's entertaining and really worth watching.

Viewed at 2013 Los Angeles Film Noir festival image1.jpeg The Two Mrs. Carrolls" (1947) features a most improbable Humphrey Bogart as a talented but mentally disturbed painter (if you can buy that -- who makes a practice of painting portraits of his wives, as the Angel of Death and then knocking them off — in England, no less. With Bogie delivering his lines in unadulterated "Casablancanese", even in this genteel English environment, it looks like he's playing in a different flick than the rest of the cast, but who cares, when the lady he wants to murder is Barabara Stanwyck, as the surviving Mrs. Carroll!Far from a classic, but one for the books as perhaps the least known of all Bogart flicks – and rightfully so. You'll never see it on TCM, but Humphrey does chew up the scenery when he starts freaking out…(No one ever pulled one over on J. C. Dobbs). One of the extra delights of this film is the alluring A-list actress Alexis Smith, who tends to steal the show in the scenes where she appears and openly puts the make on Bogie in front of her high society mother and flustered wife Stanwyck. This one will make you loosen your critical straightjacket if you have it on. Redefines the classification "camp classic".

Although credits are top-draw, production values are very moderate. Peter Godfrey's direction is also a mite disappointing. Neither he nor screenplay writer Thomas Job have made much attempt to open up the stage play. Instant information dialogue is put across with a disconcerting lack of subtlety in both writing and delivery. Ann Carter's unrealistically precocious child and Nigel Bruce's blustering, stereotyped doctor are the worst offenders. Bogart himself delivers another of his very capable studies in psychopathology. Barbara Stanwyck is also cast strictly to type, but she too comes across effectively. Both she and Bogart give seemingly effortless portrayals as they both have parts they can play standing on their heads. Alexis Smith makes a strong impression in an unsympathetic part. On the other hand, Patrick O'Moore makes a wet, colorless hero. In the support cast, Anita Bolster (looking rather like Margaret Hamilton) gives an audience-pleasing portrait of a cynical servant. Godfrey himself does a brief and amusing cameo as a race-track con man. Barry Bernard registers as the blackmailing Blagdon, while Isobel Elsom delivers her usual capable rendition of a high society lady. Godfrey's direction is at its best in the climax with the camera tracking across the room with Bogart as he makes his preparations. It must be admitted that Godfrey sees the action from a cinematic rather than a stage audiences' point-of-view, but his approach is often unimaginatively routine. All the same, certain sequences do have power (the murder, the climax, the discovery of the portrait), but thanks as much to deft film editing and atmospheric photography by Peverell Marley (who lights Miss Stanwyck most attractively) as anything else. Stanwyck is also most attractively costumed and made up. Alert music scoring effectively mirrors every cue in the dialogue.

I had seen this years ago, and remembered it as scary, but this time around it seemed obvious.Humphrey Bogart overacts as a mentally disturbed, conniving, serial-marrying artist who's being blackmailed by his druggist. How could Bogie have accepted a hack role like this only five years after the sublime "Casablanca"? This 1947 film has an overdone soundtrack that triple-underlines every dramatic moment, as if the viewer is a dunce. Barbara Stanwyck's performance seems less exaggerated than some of her peers', and the icily beautiful Alexis Smith does well as a predatory blonde. Perhaps as is typical of movies of the era, the child actor in the film seems almost eerily mature -- a woman stuffed into a girl's body. (When I looked Ann Carter up on Wikipedia I learned that "in her best roles, she is a vulnerable child trapped in a hostile adult world.") This film has intermittent interest but hasn't aged well.