The Worst Film Ever

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Two ways to look at this film, the performers and the script. Warner Brothers made the film in 1945, and waited 2 years to release it. There are reasons for that including Bogart being cast as an mentally ill artist is not the normal role for him. While he does get a tough guy type of murder he does late in the movie, in this one he plays an artist who is not a smart as his usual self. Barbara Stanwyck is Sally, Geoffrey's (Bogies) second wife. He poisons his first wife with spiked warm milk and she never appears in the film. Ann Carter plays her young daughter Beatrice, who is rather precious and a bit of too grown up acting for a 9 year old (her age) when this was filmed. She is sort of detached, yet attached to her father (Bogie) and seems to show no emotion when her mom dies, which is kind of creepy. Her scenes with Bogart are strange as it is rare for him to do scenes with a juvenile. Bogart has painted a portrait of the first wife, as an angel of death, who he killed after meeting Sally. His inspiration is apparently his plan to murder her. So logically he is working on a painting of Sally. He meets Cecily (Alexis Smith) and starts an affair with her. Amazingly Sally suspects the affair but since he is starting the process of poisoning her, she is a bit helpless to do anything about it.Barry Bernard plays Horace, a chemist who is providing the poison being used for the murder. Then as he puts 2 and 2 together, he starts blackmailing the artist who is not starving and his wife Sally is loaded so he has money, hers.From here, there is suspense, as we are left wondering if Sally is going to stop her own impending murder. Beatrice (the daughter) becomes the most valuable source of information for Sally as she get to see her portrait and learns he is next.It's not top Bogart but the ladies in this have some claws. At the end, when the law catches up, they are offered a glass of warm milk. That is why this one is a bit warm but worth a look anyhow.

Those ringing bells outside would drive me insane no wonder he has headaches!! Edith Head didn't do the costumes for Barbara on this movie but the outfits are beautiful. She seems to always use Edith Head in all her movies. She was really a beautiful woman great lines.I can't imagine kissing Humphrey he smokes every 5 mins his breath must have been absolutely awful.Why not divorce instead of murder or cheat?Director and lighting in the movie was excellent.Love Barbara.I would have ended this movie different had I written it. I do love Black and White movies but I wish sometimes I could see the color of the outfits women are wearing.

This is, first of all, a well made, well mounted, and well cast film. It even has Franz Waxman's music, which is fine indeed.I found difficulty enjoying this film however because none of the characters are sympathetic except the surly housekeeper who is endearing because she IS insolent. Very odd.Bogart's character, Geoffrey Carroll, comes off as a cad from the get-go which wouldn't necessarily have been so bad if it weren't also clear from the start of the film that he was hell-bent on murdering his first wife. He wasn't suffering in the marriage, he was evidently just a rotten person. Hard to find any sympathy there.Daughter Bea is devoted to her father in a way that seems very unnatural; she is indeed a peculiar child. Perhaps we should have seen more of the first Mrs Carroll's marriage (relationship) so we could have better understood Bea. I dunno... She seems one step away from being The Bad Seed, IMHO. No sympathy there...The supporting characters, with the exception of the aforementioned housekeeper, are either dull as dishwater (Penny), despicable (Cecily), snobbish (Cecily's mother) or incompetent (the Doctor).The chemist who blackmails Carroll is decidedly heinous and, while entertaining, is also highly unlikable. But he's supposed to be.Finally, Sally, Carroll's second wife, doesn't have much to recommend herself and there is little reason to care whether she lives or dies. Oh sure, she showed some spine when she initially rejects Carroll when she finds out he's already married, but the film skips what should have been key scenes between Carroll and Sally where they reconcile after the death of Carroll's first wife. I'd have liked to see him sweet talk Sally into marriage now that the first wife was so conveniently out of the picture...In addition, Sally is pretty dumb. It's clear to us, the audience, that Cecily and Carroll have a spark between them from their initial introduction (there's a fine line between love and contempt!). But Sally chooses to ignore Cecily's rather obvious plays for her man (irresponsible) and even keeps her former fiancé Penny around all the time as a family friend (sorry, that doesn't work too well in real life).Despite good breeding, Sally shows bad judgment and appears to be boringly complacent. She doesn't have much personality; I mean, what does she DO with her days? She's a character that is sketched pretty poorly and I don't fault Stanwyck at all; I fault the writing. Sally isn't the least bit sympathetic (except for her predicament and that's purely mechanical; a sheer function of the narrative).In a good Noir, the characters have flaws & fall prey to circumstances that get out of control often due to their own personal failings. These people aren't just flawed, however, they are damned annoying.Finally, the motivation for Carroll's murderous tendencies are never made very clear. Sure, some people are just *born* bad, and that's a fact of life. However, it would have made the film better if we, the audience, had been given a bit more background on Carroll and what drove him to commit murder in the first place. What's his philosophy? All we get is one scene between Carroll & Cecily where she lures him with a new, carefree life with her in sunny South America and him stroking his brow like a simmering maniac (the bells! the bells!) saying that "this was what he always wanted..." Verrrry shallow.Or is a commentary about artists in general? That they're selfish, immoral, lazy? Looking for hand-outs from rich patrons? Willing to trade up (even through murder) when a better opportunity comes along? What RUBBISH! Enjoy this movie for what it is, but don't expect it to compare with Hitchcock's "Suspicion" which also deals with a (potentially) murderous spouse & deadly glasses of warm milk.

Gothic atmosphere and mood highlight this ultimately mediocre and tepid try at suspense and terror. The two stars are competent, although Bogart is miscast and seems to be forcing it and is especially unbelievable during the finale.The wonderful little girl softens the beast within, but that contrasted with the psychotic painter is to subtle and unbelievable to be truly effective. Some of the contrivances are incoherent and not fully consistent enough to sustain the suspenseful mood. The last act is the most disappointing and seems to rush things along rather than build the required terror and trepidation. The final few lines of dialog are ridiculous and tacked on for viewer closure.Watchable and offbeat enough to recommend, just not up to the standards of the participants.