Aldous Huxley must have led an interesting life. I can’t believe the same guy who wrote Brave New World also scripted The Devils, a movie Warner Bros seems intent on burying since its release in 1971. This is the same guy who wrote a book that provided the inspiration for the name of the band The Doors, though I don’t think it’s fair to blame him for their music. And this is somehow the same person who scripted the 1948 noir A Woman’s Vengeance.
Actually, I’m not sure if this picture is noir or gothic. Its plot scans like the former, though it feels gothic, with its memorable scenes of histrionics set to storms with gale-force winds.
Charles Boyer stars as the long-suffering husband of Rachel Kempson. His wife is an invalid, though this doesn’t justify her cruelty towards her husband, at least from what we’re shown. She refuses to let him have a divorce if only because she enjoys his misery: “Do you know the only reason I’m still alive? Because it would make him so happy if I died.”
Boyer has something on the side which, given he was the star of Gaslight, would seem to position him as the bad guy. And yet, I found it easy to sympathize for him, given his wife’s behavior. Also, his mistress is played by Ann Bylth and…damn, have you ever seen Ann Blyth?
Kempson dies early on in the picture and everybody initially believes her poor health finally did her in. Myself, I had the nagging suspicion there was the suggestion of hypochondria, though I don’t recall anything specific that left me with that impression.
But, once again, Boyer having been in Gaslight has the audience immediately suspecting he disposed of her. And that is what all the characters come to suspect, though there is no shortage of other potential suspects.
Boyer is dependable as always in this. I always felt he played one role across his career with only subtle variations from one picture to another. Still, it’s a good role.
Perhaps more notable is Ann Blyth, maximizing the potential of what might have been a toss-off role. Then there’s Mildred Natwick as Kempson’s nurse, and who has always been untrusting of Boyer. Cedric Hardwicke as the family doctor is also good.
But the person who steals the show is Jessica Tandy as Boyer’s close friend. This is another one of those actors I have only before seen in things they did in their advanced years, so she will always be old to me. Unlike Angela Lansbury, however, Tandy actually looks young-ish here. At least, I didn’t expect to see Morgan Freeman chauffeuring her at any point. Then again, she was thrilled to receive a set of Proust as a gift from Boyer, so maybe she was always 70 years old inside. Myself, I’d be like, “Wow…thanks for the doorstop.”
Typical of this type of film, the dialogue has a real zing to it. “You treat your brother like he’s a half-wit and then you’re surprised when he acts like one.” Or how Boyer handles a blackmailer: “Come whenever you like. You’ll be equally unwelcome”
I think A Woman’s Vengeance could still resonate with audiences today. And yet, I think the thing audiences will have the greatest trouble reconciling is a self-pitying speech where Boyer says the tragedy of his life is he doesn’t have a purpose because he was born with money. So, our protagonist was an early sufferer of affluenza.
Dir: Zoltan Korda
Starring Charles Boyer, Jessica Tandy, Ann Blyth
Watched as part of Kino Lorber’s blu-ray box set Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XI