Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Wonderful character development!

Instant Favorite.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Generally regarded as director Nicholas Ray's least successful movie, "A Woman's Secret" is based on the novel "Mortgage on Life" by Vicki Baum and tells the story of an investigation into the near-fatal shooting of a well-known young singer. What transpired before the shooting is revealed through a series of flashbacks with some pieces of information proving to be more reliable than others and very little being discovered which could explain why the victim's mentor so readily confessed to the crime.Following one of her radio broadcasts, popular singer Susan Caldwell (Gloria Grahame), who's known professionally as Estrellita, returns to the apartment she shares with her mentor Marian Washburn (Maureen O'Hara) and announces that she intends to give up her singing career. This leads to a very animated quarrel, a physical struggle and a gun being fired that leaves Susan critically injured before Marian, very calmly and without hesitation, calls for medical help and reports the incident to the police.Police Inspector Jim Fowler (Jay C Flippen) leads the investigation and Marian's business partner Luke Jordan (Melvyn Douglas) hires attorney Brook Matthews (Victor Jory) to defend her. Jordan, who believes implicitly in Marian's innocence, explains to Fowler that she'd enjoyed a successful career as a singer before having contracted a throat ailment that damaged her voice and led to her retirement. Some time later, they had jointly "discovered" Susan and steered her to success but despite this she'd remained as unsophisticated and unstable as she'd been when they first knew her and didn't appreciate the value of her new career. Susan's attitude frustrated and irritated Marian who'd invested so much of her time and effort into coaching her protégée. Would this have fully explained why Marian was so desperate to prevent Susan from giving up her career or was there more to their relationship than meets the eye? "A Woman's Secret" begins well and remains intriguing through most of its running time but unfortunately leads to a conclusion that disappoints. No doubt, this is the main reason why the movie was a commercial flop and still remains so unappreciated many years after its first release. Despite this, however, it's not entirely without merit because there are some good performances (particularly from Gloria Grahame, Jay C Flippen and Melvyn Douglas), some enjoyable humour and amusing dialogue (e.g. when Jordan describes Susan as having "a voice with hormones"). The flashback structure also creates an impression of more substance than would have been the case if the drama had simply been presented in linear form.Interestingly, during the making of this movie, another drama was being played out behind the cameras, as Nicholas Ray and Gloria Grahame had an affair which led to their unsuccessful marriage and divorce. This had been Grahame's second marriage and after her third one also ended in divorce, she subsequently married Ray's son, Anthony in 1960.

An engaging little noir-style mystery, although it has to be said that this is very gentle even by the standards of the era and it's more of a cosy drama than anything else. The movie begins with an unexpected murder, and the rest of the tale is a mix of flashbacks leading up to the event interspersed with police procedural investigation into the crime.In essence this is a chance to explore a love triangle between three famous actors of the day. The ubiquitous Maureen O'Hara bags the most dramatic role of the suspected murderess and headlines it as you'd expect, but Melvyn Douglas holds it all together as the man caught between two feisty women. Gloria Grahame is an intriguing actress who gives a rather sultry turn as the star singer and it's increasingly apparent as the story progresses that the director is in love with her.Otherwise, despite the lack of action and incident, A WOMAN'S SECRET works rather well. Nicholas Ray handles the directorial duties with relish, and the characters are both interesting and larger than life. It's hardly the kind of movie to set the world on fire, but one which film fans should appreciate.

I had high hopes for this film. The screenplay is by Herman J Mankiewicz of 'Citizen Kane' fame and it's directed by Nicholas Ray and features actress Gloria Grahame. Ray also directed one of my favorite films 'In A Lonely Place' in which Grahame also starred. The great side-story on the film here is how the two of them met on the set and zipped off to Vegas so that Grahame could get a quickie divorce from her then husband and marry Ray. Maybe they should have focused on making this a watchable film instead of cooing over each other. Like most noirs this had tons of flashbacks, but generally in other movies they are used to reveal surprising clues, here they are a gimmick to tell every irrelevant detail of somebody's life which we could care less about. Avoid this film and watch 'In a Lonely Place' instead.

A popular young radio singer (Gloria Grahame) is shot, and her mentor (Maureen O'Hara) confesses to the deed... but did she really do it, and if so, why? A little bit MILDRED PIERCE and a little bit ALL ABOUT EVE and not nearly as memorable as either. Oh, it's not a bad film, but it's too low-key to work up much excitement for (and only the tiniest bit noir). Grahame, although blatantly overdubbed in her singing parts, is a joy to watch as always... but the role really doesn't give her much room to shine (as a sidenote, this was the film where she met future spouse Nicholas Ray). O'Hara again doesn't do much for me, but co-star Melvyn Douglas is mildly enjoyable. The real treat is Jay C. Flippen and Mary Philips as the inspector and his crafty wife, who get the lion's share of the script's funniest and most clever moments. As would you expect from Ray, the direction is well done, although lacking the moody atmosphere of his superior THEY LIVE BY NIGHT from the previous year. Overall the movie is enjoyable but too lightweight to be worth a second look.