I think Fox liked Joan Collins as a sort of imitation Elizabeth Taylor - dark hair, dark eyes, saucy minx - yet this film saw her step in for Marilyn Monroe, who turned it down. It's a decent retelling of the Stanford White murder - producer-writer Charles Brackett enjoyed tales of high society, as befitting someone of his background.
This has second tier stars, though everyone is comfortably cast: Ray Milland, ageing as the dashing White, young Joan, and Farley Granger as the spoilt psycho Thaw. Pleasing colour and locations and it's competently put together. Interesting story.
The biggest problem of this film for me was that it didn't pick a lane. There's three interesting characters at the centre but none at the forefront. Punches felt withdrawn. Things felt censored. Like the Milland-Collins relationship. So it happened? It was sexual? He sent her to school? Is that a place where she could have a baby? Going to school feels weird and controlling. There is a controlling aspect to the relationship that's not really explored. Ditto the relationship between White and his wife - or Shaw and his mother. Or Collins/Nesbitt and her mother.
The script goes through events but I feel it would've been better if it had fixed on Shaw or White more.
Effective moments like Granger and Collins arguing in the snow causing words to echo, Shaw's creepy mother, the oddness of the swing.
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