Bedelia

Vera Caspary’s novel Bedelia serves as the inspiration for this 1946 melodrama about a man who weds a young woman only to discover that she is a black widow. This novel came shortly after Caspary’s novel Laura became a huge hit for 20th Century Fox and Otto Preminger.  Bedelia, the book, was described as “guaranteed to raise gooseflesh on the hottest summer night.” Whether that is the case or not, what ended up on the big screen isn’t quite that successful but it has its moments. The biggest thing it has going for it is atmosphere. The mystery, which is played to the hilt by Margaret Lockwood, is all too obvious but how it is played out and the tone being set make up for much of that.

Margaret is playing Bedelia Carrington, a newly married woman on her honeymoon in Monte Carlo with her husband, Charlie (Ian Hunter). She is a private individual, averse to having her picture taken, even by her husband, but she does accept an offer by a young painter, Ben Chaney (Barry K. Barnes), to sit in for a portrait. She eventually cuts the sessions short, though and the couple returns to their home in England. Soon afterwards, Ben shows up again, invited to visit them in England and finish her portrait. Ben also appears to have an ulterior motive, one tied to Bedelia’s secretive past.

A big part of why this film doesn’t work the way Laura did is that the mystery is clumsily told. There are far too many scenes where Ben trickles out a bit of information in front of Bedelia just for the camera to focus heavily on her reaction. It spoils the mystery and makes the third act reveal too predictable. It lacks subtlety and nuance. There is no room in this script for much doubt about her character and what she has done in the past. Instead, we spend much of the time just waiting for the film to finally turn over the final card and tell us how deep this well really goes. It makes the film drag out rather than build suspense. In better hands this story could have been a good one but here it is mostly wasted. It needed someone like Preminger at the helm. Perhaps then we could have had another legitimate masterpiece of suspense instead of a mere adequate melodrama. 1946 - 90 minutes