Another high strung woman driven mad by some unscrupulous jerk…
The Secret Fury (1950), dir Mel Ferrer, w/ Claudette Colbert (Ellen Ewing), Robert Ryan (David McLean), Paul Kelly (Eric Lowell), Philip Ober (Gregory Kent), and Vivian Vance (Leah)
***SPOILER ALERT ***
I have to say, I liked the look of this film, but it’s a plot so convoluted I’m not sure it could ever come off. The film starts on the wedding day of Ellen Ewing to David McLean, but someone does something they never do (except in movies) == he speaks up rather than holding his peace. He claims that Ellen is already married to some ne’er-do-well jazz musician (I know, aren’t they all). She denies it, but all the evidence (the signed register in the county courthouse, various items of Ellen’s that show up in the possession of people to whom she, as a happy bride, happened to give them). When the jazz musician winds up dead from gunshot, and the gun at the foot of Ellen, she must stand trial for murder. She is badgered by the District Attorney, Eric Lowell, who had been a beau of hers — he seems motivated by a desire to show that he can beat up his former sweetie, thereby showing that he has no special interest in the case (even so — it is clear that he should disqualify himself from the prosecution). Breaking down on the stand, her attorney changes her plea from not guilty to not guilty due to insanity, a plea the judge is happy to take. This means she’s on her way to the nuthouse, and nuthouses are never good in films — they are all a variation of the Snake Pit — a place where madness is only worsened, and never cured. While she is there, David seeks to find the truth to spring her, but he finds some information perhaps too late.
So much of this film seems to depend on every thing going through without a hitch, but there are so many variables, it is only good fortune (not great planning) that things go the way they do (both for and against Ellen). As the whole plot depends on everything coming off without a hitch, and for some of it coming off without the authorities noticing, it fails to convince.
And there are lots of films like this, most famously Gaslight — so there isn’t really a strong reason to see Claudette Colbert and Robert Ryan walk down the same path as Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten. And Claudette is too old as a bride. It’s nice to see Ryan play someone who isn’t mean or crazy.
