The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)

Directed by Peter Godfrey. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith, Anita Sharp-Bolster, Nigel Bruce, Ann Carter, Isobel Elsom, Patrick O’Moore, Barry Bernard.

Bogart is cast against type as a murderous head case, a tortured artist who painted his first wife and then killed her after meeting Stanwyck; she’s his second wife now, but his traded flirtations with Smith has developed into infatuation, so now it’s time to paint spouse number two… Overly derivative thriller has modest amounts of atmosphere and suspense, but not enough to fully overcome the faulty script and uneven performances (Bogart mugs his psychosis too much, Bruce’s babbling alcoholic doctor has become tired schtick in his hands, and Stanwyck strains for terror and hysteria). Playing Bogie’s young daughter, Carter is such a model of precocious formality that it’s genuinely surprising that she doesn’t turn out to be a chip-off-the-old-block psychopath in the end. Originally completed in 1945 but delayed two years due to concerns that the film would be considered too similar to 1944’s Gaslight (it’s even closer to a middling facsimile of Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion from 1941).

51/100