Another Man’s Poison (1951)

Another Man’s Poison 
Directed by Irving Rapper
Written by Val Guest based on a play by Leslie Sands
1951/USA
Angel Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video

Janet Frobisher: You asked a pretty question; I’ve given you the ugly answer.

This did not work for me at all.

Janet Frobisher (Bette Davis) is a successful mystery writer who lives in an isolated corner of the Yorkshire moors.  She is in love with or in heat for (she vacillates depending on whom she is talking to) the much younger fiance of her secretary.

One day, her estranged husband reappears after several years.  Soon afterwards, George Bates (Gary Merrill), who was her husband’s accomplice in a bank robbery in which a policeman was killed, shows up at her door looking for him.  After awhile, Janet is forced to admit that she poisoned him.  George agrees to help her dump the body in a deep tarn.  He then refuses to leave and stays to impersonate her husband, whom no one has ever seen.

George and Janet mix like oil and water.  Meanwhile, her secretary and the fiance show up and Janet takes the fiance on long rides during which she attempts to seduce him.  The household is graced with the increasingly disturbing visits of Janet’s nosy next-door neighbor (Emlyn Williams).

This movie was produced by Davis and filmed at Davis and Merrill’s home. Davis is clearly not Davis’s ideal producer as there was apparently no one on the crew willing to discourage her from playing a caricature of herself.  Also, this is again one of those films where the middle-aged star is portrayed as being a radiant beauty who is irresistible to all men.  It is less irritating when Davis does this than when Joan Crawford does but it still gets on my nerves.  Otherwise, the plot is all over the place and the movie seems much longer than its 90 minute length.  The film does have its fans though.  It has a 7.2/10 user rating on IMDb.

Trailer – cinematography by Robert Krasker