Truly Dreadful Film

That was an excellent one.

Strong and Moving!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Rainy Manhattan streets, shadowy interiors and expressionistic cinematography all contribute to the dark atmosphere of this romantic melodrama in which deception, jealousy and fear are prevalent throughout. Its story about a love triangle that involves classical musicians is characterised by mendacity, suspicion and passions that run so high that they eventually lead to murder and there's also an ever-present tension that exists because the stakes are so high for everyone involved.As it's based on the play "Monsieur Lamberthier" by Louis Verneuil, it's no surprise that some passages of the movie are stagy but on the more positive side, it also features a superior script with lots of witty dialogue to enjoy.Struggling pianist Christine Radcliffe (Bette Davis) and talented cello player Karel Novak (Paul Henreid) are thrilled to meet up again in New York City after a long separation. The couple had known each other in Europe during World War 11 and Christine had returned home believing that her lover had been killed. After she takes Karel back to her penthouse apartment in Manhattan, he's suitably impressed but also wonders how she can afford to live in such surroundings and to pay for the fur coats that he sees in her wardrobe. She tells him that she gets well paid for giving piano lessons to students from well-off families.The couple decide to get married without delay and during their wedding party are surprised by the arrival of world-famous composer Alexander Hollenious (Claude Rains) who, as Christine's mentor, says he's concerned about how marriage might affect her dedication to her musical development and also mentions that Christine has never given piano lessons professionally. Hollenious has an overbearing manner and is obviously bitter and jealous about Christine getting married. His conduct at the party becomes so inappropriate that, after his departure, the other guests quickly disperse.Christine, who for some years had been enjoying the material benefits of being Hollenious' mistress, fears that he might tell Karel about their affair and when he offers Karel the opportunity to perform the cello solo in his newly-composed concerto, Christine becomes very suspicious of his motives. Knowing what Hollenious is capable of, she fears that he might be using the situation as a means to damage her new husband's career but the way in which subsequent events unfold, prove to be full of surprises for Christine, Karel and Hollenious.Acting styles obviously change over the years but Claude Rains' performance in this movie is so outrageously entertaining that it transcends any such concerns. The impact he makes in the wedding party scene and at a dinner that Hollenious arranges (purely to disconcert Karel) before the rehearsal for the new concerto, is absolutely tremendous as he dominates both scenes completely. Bette Davis looks shifty as she has to keep telling lie after lie to conceal her secret and Paul Henreid looks troubled throughout as a man who becomes suspicious of both Christine and Hollenious and struggles to cope with his fragile mental and emotional state (which is a consequence of his experiences during the War)."Deception" features some good camera-work with numerous well-framed shots and effective camera angles playing their part in enhancing the action. Interesting use is also made of mirrors, for example when Karel sees Christine for the first time and in a sequence where Christine, looking at her reflection, smoothly changes to Hollenious doing the same thing. This movie isn't a classic but is nevertheless, very enjoyable both for its entertaining plot and Rains' exceptional performance.

" . . . it spells 'Forward,'" rattles off the glib cleaning product radio spot announcer midway through DECEPTION. That sentence sums up this flick perfectly. It harks back to Hollywood's infamous Pre-Code Days, when a married couple could conspire to get away with the cold-blooded murder of their wealthy benefactor and walk away light-of-heart, free as birds, without a care in the world, counting up their ill-gotten booty as the slain Founder of their Feast collects blow flies in a pool of blood on his grand staircase. J.K. Simmons of WHIPLASH fame wouldn't last 10 minutes if Bette Davis was still around to contest his Beat. As soon as Ms. Davis waltzes into Alfred Hitchcock's Death Penthouse from ROPE and sits down at that Piano of Doom, it's clear that someone's biting the dust sooner rather than later. Ms. Davis' Musical Love-Triangled "Christine" seems much more of an inspiration for Andrew Lloyd Webber's PHANTOM Christine than the one of that 1800s French writer guy. Speaking of music, DECEPTION score composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold demonstrates how to condense Claude Rains' cello concerto, boiling it down to four minutes. This, after Korngold cuts the Second Movement of Beethoven's Seventh to 70 seconds, far less than it takes in a concert hall, or even its running time in THE FALL. It's all enough to make one wonder whether Bette's "Ilsa" would have gunned down Bogart's Rick in CASABLANCA. After all, "Drawrof" spelled backward is "Forward!"

Bette Davis is one of my favorite actresses, and I have DVDs of quite a few of her flicks. I won't be buying a DVD of this one. The only word that came to my mind while watching it was -- murky -- particularly the first half of the film.In this whole film, which lasts 110 minutes, Bette Davis has only one good scene -- toward the end, when she confesses murder to her husband. For the rest of the film she seems powerless, both in terms of the character, and her acting. Paul Henreid does "okay" here, particularly later in the film. But that magic between Davis and Henreid that was there in "Now, Voyager" is nowhere to be seen in this dog of a film.The only bright spot here is the over-the-top performance of Claude Rains. I'm not saying it's a good portrayal -- just that it's fun to watch him strut his stuff. I've always liked Rains, but here I watched him for the wrong reason.And the other thing I hated about this film is the up-in-the-air ending. Is she going to confess to the police and go to prison? Is her husband going to say he did it? Or are they going to skip town and go to San Francisco and have her get away with murder? No idea. Totally vague to that major point.Frankly, it's good to see that Bette Davis could make a lousy picture...although the blame for that really goes to director Irving Crapper...oops, I mean Irving Rapper. It was this film -- which was her first to lose money -- that began her slide at Warner Brothers.I won't buy the DVD of this film (currently out of print) nor ever watch it again on TCM. Once was enough!

Deception (1946)A marvelous chamber piece, in a way, involving orchestral music. The cast begins with two principals, played with usual intensity by Bette Davis and with usual restraint by Paul Henreid. This broods a bit and suggests trouble, and then comes the third player, who outdoes them both, in the form of Claude Rains. The rest of the movie is an interplay between the three, a push and pull and game of dodging and, of course, deception.So how to judge this kind of tightly woven enterprise? It feels as though William Wyler could have directed it, so polished and rich it all is. But this is a Warner Brothers drama, so there is another kind of layer of dark danger, and of a noir inspired lighting and camera-work. This visual aspect, in a way, is the real star of the film, which says a lot, considering the high level of acting involved. In all it's purely an entertainment, but at the highest level. The backdrop of classic music and classical musicians hasn't worn well over the years, but I grew up with this kind of scene and it brought back a lot of those vibes. A terrific movie within its own genre.