Monday, December 28, 2015

The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)


☆ ☆ ½


The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) – P. Godfrey

Barbara Stanwyck is a Woman in Peril in this by-the-numbers flick cut from the same cloth as Hitchcock’s Suspicion or Cukor’s Gaslight (that is, we must ask is Humphrey Bogart going to kill his new second wife?).  However, The Two Mrs. Carrolls isn’t as good as those earlier films and no matter how hard Bogie glowers or Stanwyck frets, the suspense doesn’t seem to build.  The script (or director Peter Godfrey) just doesn’t seem to bother with the possibility that Bogie isn’t a villain – we know that from day one.  There are a few nice touches – a precocious child, a blunt maid, bumbling Nigel Bruce (but wait, he _was_ in Suspicion too, hmmm).  However, nothing rises above routine here and this is why it appears nowhere on the lists of Bogart or Stanwyck films to see.  So, don’t.


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