Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I have always liked this movie and purchased it as part of the Barbara Stanwyck collection. Most of the reviews provided on East Side/West Side have hit the mark. Good melodrama and women knew how to wear clothes. One interesting point about this movie that has not been mentioned - the only scene between Barbara Stanwyck and Ava Gardner had pure tension. According to Robert Osborne (Turner Classic Movies Film Historian and biographies on Stanwyck and Gardner), Stanwyck was great friends with Nancy Sinatra, Frank's first wife. During the filming of this movie, Gardner was having an affair with Frank. Stanwyck did not like Gardner for trying and eventually breaking up their marriage. Also, Stanwyck knew that Gardner had an affair with her husband at the time, Robert Taylor during an earlier 1940s film. So the tension in that particular scene was real!

It's hard to know whether one should feel envy or pity for Brandon Bourne, the character that James Mason portrays so effectively in 1949's "East Side, West Side." Married to wealthy socialite Jessie (Barbara Stanwyck, giving her all here, as she always did), living in a posh duplex apartment overlooking the East River, and the copartner in an upscale investment firm, "Bran" certainly does seem to have it all. Unfortunately for him, however, he also suffers from a peculiar sickness, and her name is Isabel Lorrison. A year before the events depicted in the film, Bran's affair with Isabel had almost caused his marriage to unravel. But now, Isabel has returned to New York again, and Bran is starting to experience...well, let's just call them "symptoms"; understandable enough, seeing that Isabel is played by Ava Gardner, who at the time was at the very peak of her sex goddess phase! Ava would soon be dubbed the "world's sexiest animal," and seeing her effortlessly seduce Bran in this film, one is not inclined to dispute that appellation! Indeed, with the possible exception of her performance in "The Killers" (1946), I have never seen Ava give such a blatantly sexual performance; almost worth the price of admission alone!Besides those three wonderful actors, "East Side, West Side" gives us Van Heflin, extremely ingratiating here as Jessie's new friend, Mark Dwyer; Cyd Charisse, playing another new friend of Jessie's and doing what might be thought of as the Joan Leslie "nice girl" role (sadly, Cyd's surpreme dancing skills are not on display in this picture); the great Gale Sondergaard as Jessie's shrewder-than-expected society mother; Nancy Davis (Reagan) as one of Jessie's older gal pals (she's actually pretty darn good in her two scenes with Babs); William "Cannon" Conrad as a police detective; and William "Fred Mertz" Frawley as a bartender. They make for a terrific cast, and director Mervyn LeRoy elicits excellent performances from each and every one of them. This, of course, should not come as too great a surprise, one when considers the performances that LeRoy had previously obtained for films such as "Little Caesar," "I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang" (one of my personal favorites), "Gold Diggers of 1933," "Waterloo Bridge" and "Random Harvest." To this film's credit, all the performers are so very good that no one can be said to "steal" the show; they are all uniformly fine, resulting in a surprisingly effective, handsome-looking picture.The film also features a sparkling script and any number of wonderfully dramatic scenes, the ones in which Isabel seduces Bran in her apartment, Jessie confronts Isabel about her affair with Bran, and Mark gets into a fistfight with a blond Amazon being especial standouts. And then, right around the 3/4 mark, comes the startling homicide of one of the main characters, pushing "East Side, West Side" into even darker, more sinister waters. But perhaps I've already said too much. This film is a fairly serious drama, for all its soap opera trimmings, and those viewers expecting a standard Hollywood-type happy ending for all characters concerned might be a tad surprised at how things ultimately unreel. And, oh: Manhattan residents should see the film at their own risk. I guarantee that no matter how nice their apartment might be, it will surely pall besides the one that the Bournes reside in....

Every time I see this movie I am almost surprised that my TV screen does not a get a hole burned into it. That is how hot Ava Gardner is!! She shut this whole movie down with her performance. You feel so sorry for the Barbara Stanwyck character because it is so clear that she does not have a chance. Her husband is powerless over this woman and it is plain to see why.My 2 favorite scenes are one between Stanwyck and Nancy Davis who we all know as former first lady Nancy Reagan, where Nancy, playing the loyal and dutiful friend comes by to tell Stanwyck to beware that her husband's lover is back in town. The second is the scene between Gardner and Stanwyck where Ava tells her that this time around it is going to be different...Stanwyck will only see her husband when Gardner is tired of him. That scene alone makes this movie worth watching over and over again.The costumes in this movie where equisite! Ava, Barbara, Cyd and Nancy were all dressed to the nines!! It makes me wish that we still dressed that way now.I love this movie. It is classic melodrama at its best!

Manhattan in the forties was the center of the so-called Cafe Society, in which people from high society mixed with show biz types, and others, less richer folks, in the clubs and watering holes that were the places where a party atmosphere was a requirement. Brandon and Jessica Bourne, a couple of well to do New Yorkers, are seen as the story unfold. They had a rough time when Brandon had an affair with a lovely playgirl, Isabel Lorrison, who had been out of the way, but she returns to the scene with the idea of reviving her fling with the man that she never was able to get out of her heart.Jessica, who watches in horror as Bran's picture in the tabloids after being punched by Isabel's new beau, realizes Isabel's intentions in reappearing in her life. At the same time, the arrival of an admired war veteran, Mark Dwyer, who has come to interview for a job as a newspaper reporter, gets her attention because he is everything her husband is not. Mark's attraction for Jess is evident, but she is an honest woman who will stick by her man, no matter how rotten he is.When a murder brings all the principals together, it takes Mark only a moment to figure out who is the culprit, thus clearing Brandon of any wrong doing. Jessica's resolution to support her playboy husband reaches an impasse when she realizes his betrayal. Unfortunately, she doesn't make up her mind about Mark, the only hope she knows about a possible happiness.Mervyn LeRoy directed this MGM 1949 film. It was based on a novel by Marcia Davenport and adapted for the screen by Isobel Lennart, the writer of many films in her prolific career. Mr. LeRoy shows his affinity to this type of melodrama, which capitalized on the excellent cast that was put together for this project. Charles Rosher's crisp black and white cinematography works well for the picture, while Miklos Rozsa's musical score contributes to the enjoyment of the picture.Barbara Stanwyck appears as Jessica giving the character her usual intensity. Ms. Stanwyck was a reliable player no matter the vehicle she was entrusted with. James Mason, although being top billed, was not exactly the main attraction. That honor went to Van Heflin, an excellent actor that was a versatile performer who appears as Mark Dwyer, a man who falls in love with Jessica silently. Ava Gardner's contributes to create heat in the film with her sultry good looks. Cyd Charisse is Rosa, a kind young woman who helps Jessica. Nancy Davis, who went to be the First Lady, after marrying Ronald Reagan, appears as Jessica's friend. Gale Sondergaard has a couple of good scenes in the film.