The greatest movie ever made..!

just watch it!

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

When she's good she's very good, but when she's bad she's better. Joan Fontaine uses her angelic features and soft voice to strong counter-effect as the poisonous Ivy; the best scenes have her in close-up, changing facial expressions as she overhears conversations in other rooms. Apart from the stunning Fontaine, the film is pretty dull, especially in the first half (the lack of spark between her and Herbert Marshall, even if she does only care for his money, doesn't help - he is literally old enough to be her father). When Ivy discovers her murderous tendencies it picks up a little, but the contrivance of her hiding incriminating evidence in her own apartment is hard to swallow - as is the unbelievable last scene. ** out of 4.

Very good acting. Very good story. Great attention to detail, and those details are carefully thought out and intelligent and actually well plausible. Interesting characters, quite a few of them, and each one developed judiciously to fulfill a role in the grander scheme of the movie.Fontaine is beautiful as always but though very much her usual self here in a more haunting, dark role.As the audience, we are captivated by the story, satisfied by its development; never a dull moment and each scene meaningful to the plot.Finally, this is an interesting take on the human mind, infatuation and stubborn obsession and the depths in which those may take us.

Does anyone happen to know where this film was shot? The aviation scene on the cliff is beautiful. It appears to be England. However, Ivy's apartment building certainly looks like the Brill Building, with its fascinating elevators.Charles Mendl is listed as playing "Sir Charles Gage". Maybe I blinked, but I never saw him. Perhaps he was the husband's lawyer, but, again, I don't recall that character being in the film, other than being mentioned as having made a phone call. Perhaps he was in the aviation scene? Or the ballroom scene? Did anyone spot him?Herbert Marshall was 57 years old when he shot this film.

Poor Ivy: Though to the manner born, she had the bad luck to marry a charming wastrel (Richard Ney). As the movie is set in the 20s or 30s, when rigid Victorian ideas of class were starting to fray at the edges, this uncertain status vexes her unduly. The Gretorexes (for so they are called) don't know where their next shilling is coming from but there are yachting parties and fancy-dress balls in posh pleasaunces aplenty to tempt her. When Ivy (Joan Fontaine) makes the acquaintance of a wealthy older gent (Herbert Marshall, who must have been born middle-aged), she sets one of her extravant chapeaux for him. Luckily, one of the beaux she still strings along (Patric Knowles) is a physician whose consulting rooms provide a cache of poison, with which she bids her hubby farewell. The fact that it implicates Knowles doesn't phase her a bit, even as the hours trickle by until he should be hanged by the neck until dead. The turning of the plot depends on police inspector Sir Cedric Hardwicke; Knowles' mother (the redoubtable Lucile Watson); and Knowles' loyal housekeeper (Una O'Connor). Sam Wood adds some subtle touches to this well above average melodrama; Fontaine's luminous face supplies the rest.