MGM’s 1955 noir film Bedevilled does a wonderful job showcasing its Paris locales, hitting all the major tourist locations while also showing us the seedier underbelly of the city of love. This is aided by the use of CinemaScope and full color to really bring the city to life. It was advertised as the first picture to use these techniques and cameras to film in Paris and audiences were assured they would be dazzled by the gorgeous setting unfolding before their very eyes. So why did this film underperform at the box-office? It had Paris. It had grandeur. It had a bona fide star, Anne Baxter, in the lead. Yet it lost MGM over half a million dollars. Perhaps it is the less-than-stellar story that was saddled to this production.
Jo Eisinger’s script tells the story of a soon-to-be priest, Gregory Fitzgerald (Steve Forrest), as he travels to France where he will continue his studies in the priesthood. Soon after he arrives he ends up sharing a taxi with an American woman, Monica Johnson (Anne Baxter), who turns out to be a nightclub singer. Soon after dropping her off at the club, some French policemen arrive to question her; Gregory is surprised when Monica uses him as an alibi to placate the men. Shortly afterwards, as she is trying to leave the club she is grabbed by another man whom Gregory fights off. Thus begins a back and forth mystery involving gangsters, the police, and murder. Along with all that is Gregory, fighting his natural instincts and his growing affection for a woman who may or may not be leading him down the wrong path, away from his commitments to God and the church.
Anne Baxter is always worth watching. Even in her lesser works she is a fascinating performer to sit back and observe. She is also beautiful to look at and has eyes that try to lure you in, making it all the easier to understand why Gregory keeps coming back to her rather than getting himself away from all the troubles she brings him. But the story treads water for a lot of its runtime, spending entirely too much time on drawn out scenes rather than really pushing the narrative along. This isn’t too much of a detriment as the film is a fleeting 85 minutes long, but it does interfere with the pacing far too much. It also projects early on that it is not going to have a happy ending. This is not a feel good movie where the two would-be lovers live happily ever after. It is a noir film and all the trappings of that genre can be found here. 1955 - 85 minutes
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