Renoir does noir. (I couldn't resist.) This review contains minor spoilers.In your average noir, the set-up of older man, young, beautiful wife, and younger lover would have gone in a predictable direction. In "The Woman on the Beach," the filmmakers are trying for something more symbolic, which unfortunately doesn't quite work. While the plot is intriguing, the dialogue is stilted and, at times, laughable. Every time Joan Bennett appeared, I kept thinking of the matronly Mrs. Collins from "Dark Shadows." I didn't find her the least convincing as the female lead. To me, she's definitely femme, but not in the least fatale. (To her credit, she does have a very nice laugh.)There are times in the story when the police would most certainly have been called in. And, at least part of the resolution of the story was predictable. On the other hand, I thought the relationship between Robert Ryan and Charles Bickford showed the ridiculous lengths to which men fighting over a woman will go, and their interactions were the best part of the film. While it doesn't quite work, "The Woman on the Beach" is worth seeing if only because of Robert Ryan and Charles Bickford, and because it was Renoir's last American film.Just a note that I have since seen Joan Bennett in "Scarlet Street" and "The Reckless Moment" and I take back everything I said about her above. She was awesome!

It's amazing that Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan and Charles Bickford are able to hold interest in this muddled melodrama even though the script is far from believable, the situations are trite and the ending is unsatisfactory.The story plods along with occasional bursts of melodrama that seem forced and unreal because the script is so banal. Ryan is attracted to Bennett, whose blind husband (Bickford) seems to welcome him as a friend. She gradually falls in love with Ryan while distancing herself emotionally from Bickford with whom she has a love/hate/guilt relationship over being responsible for him losing his sight.Jean Renoir's direction with the players is uneven because none of the characters are sharply defined. Nevertheless, Ryan and Bennett do the best they can with characters not motivated properly and Bickford acquits himself well as the bitter artist whose works keep him living in the past.None of the elements make the story palatable or even believable. What a waste of time and talent.

The Woman on the Beach A coast guard lieutenant gets caught in the middle of a tempestuous marriage. The film has a lot of psychological angles and is anchored by three strong characters with fine performances by Ryan, Bennett and Bickford. However, the story just never takes off and seems to float around without a destination. The emotions bubbling under the surface rarely materialize into compelling plot material and I was fighting boredom a lot of the time. I also found the cinematography uninspired (except for Ryan's surreal nightmare) and the score far too oppressive.6/10

The leading actor-actress of the film were Joan Bennett and Robert Ryan. However, Charles Bickford (Tod) had a tremendous performance as a former painter, blind, with a sixth sense highly developed. The director Jean Renoir tried to combine human feelings with thriller in this film based on the novel "None so blind" of Mitchell Wilson. From the very beginning it was not difficult to guess what Peggy (Joan Bennett), Tod's wife, and the navy's lieutenant Scott wanted. Peggy was ambitious, she loved and hated Tod at the same time, while Scott was looking for the real love of his life. The relationship of Peggy with Scott looked opportunistic rather than due to sentimental attraction. Tod was bound to Peggy, but why? this is probably what the film wanted to demonstrate, once one breaks what is shared with your partner you will be free as Tod finally became. The film looks to be incoherent initially, e.g. Scott often had nightmares, and they never had any real connection with the main plot of the film.