Robert
Young had a career of playing mostly trustworthy nice guys—after all, one could
say he was born to play Marcus Welby, M.D. on television. But in 1947, he took
the chance of portraying an all-around heel, a no-good philanderer who married
for money and looks for every opportunity to score with someone new. And yet, Young’s
admirable qualities are still there, making his character of Larry Ballentine
in the film noir drama, They Won’t Believe Me, a likable cad. He
pulls it off, too.
Audiences
didn’t take to the change, though, and the picture was a box office dud.
However, the lack of profits when a movie is released is never a true
indication of its quality. They Won’t Believe Me is an artfully crafted,
well-acted, twisty tale about lies, fate, and luck.
The
original screenplay was written by Jonathan Latimer, creator of the William
Crane crime novels as well as other mysteries and thrillers of the 30s through
the 50s. He was also a prolific screenwriter; his work includes The Glass
Key (1942) and The Big Clock (1948). The director, Irving Pichel,
was primarily an actor, but he often sat behind the camera for two decades; one
of his later pictures was Destination Moon (1950)! Hollywood stalwart
Harry J. Wild served as cinematographer, and he already had his film noir chops
down with such fare as Murder, My Sweet (1944) and Johnny Angel (1945).
The
cast is excellent. Besides Young, who is in every scene of the movie, there is
the luminous Susan Hayward, an extremely talented and beautiful actress who
left us far too soon. Supporting them are Jane Greer (of Out of the Past fame),
Rita Johnson, and Tom Powers (who played Barbara Stanwyck’s doomed husband in Double
Indemnity).
Larry
(Young) is on trial for murdering Verna (Hayward). His defense lawyer puts him
on the stand to tell his story; thus, the film is told in flashback, with the
courtroom sequences functioning as a framing device. Larry admits he was not a
good husband to wealthy Gretta (Johnson) and that he married her for her money.
Gretta was also aware of this and she tolerated his infidelities because she
knew he would never leave. After an almost-tryst with Janice (Greer), he meets
Verna at his lucrative new office job that Gretta had arranged for him. Verna
is likely going to marry the boss, Trenton (Powers), but she honestly reveals
to Larry that she’s a gold-digger and, frankly, what we call a “party girl.â€
She has no qualms with having an affair with Larry. But they actually fall in
love, so Larry makes sincere plans to leave Gretta and run away with Verna.
Unfortunately, twists of fate interfere with their plans. We know Verna dies from
the beginning of the movie, and how this occurs is one of the surprises in the
plot. When Gretta meets a similar fate, then Larry sweats it out until he is
ultimately arrested. At 95-minutes, They Won’t Believe Me is the
celluloid equivalent of a page-turner, and how it all plays out is always
unpredictable.
The
Warner Archive has released an astonishingly gorgeous high-definition
restoration in glorious black and white that looks as if the print is brand
new. It comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono soundtrack and English
subtitles for the hearing impaired. Unfortunately, there are no supplements on
the disk.
You
won’t believe how compelling They Won’t Believe Me is until you see it. Check
it out.
