Much disparaged and not entirely successful but there is a good movie in here struggling to get out. The plot needed to be simplified. Also I think every guy in the movie should have wanted to shag Bette Davis. Gary Merrill clearly does, which is great (he and Davis are an excellent on screen couple you can imagine them having drinks, slapping each other around and having make up sex every night); Anthony Steel is meant to be sleeping with Davis but while he's handsome he can't convey lust; Emlyn Williams as a smug neighbourly vet should love David too but he's asexual.
Davis was an excellent actor but the film was unsure how to pitch her - she should have gone full throttle, been a complete villainness. The film has good twists - the final poison drinking, the reveal she's rooting Steel, Merrill pretending to be her husband - but feels inconsistent.
I think maybe it was a mistake to make her a writer and not something more obviously sexy like an actor. Or maybe that would have worked. She could have been costumed more flatteringly.
The movie should have been about passion: everyone hot for Davis, her hot for Steel, furious when rejected etc. There's not enough sex in it. Maybe that wasn't within directing Irving Rapper's skill set.
Still not as bad as some have dismissed it. It suffers next to All About Eve but on its own level is fine.
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