The Woman on the Beach
Directed by Jean Renoir
Written by Frank Davis and Jean Renoir from a novel by Mitchell Wilson
1947/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
Tod: Don’t try to get away. I can sense every move you make. I can sense you like an animal. My eyes don’t see, but I have hands and ears and a nose. I can even smell your hate!
The cast makes this movie watchable. The script and editing not so much.
Scott (Robert Ryan) is a Coast Guard officer. He has been suffering from PTSD since a cruiser he was on was hit by a torpedeo. He is engaged to a sweet young thing and has begged her to get married that very night. She wants to carry on with her wedding plans.
That same day, he meets Peggy (Joan Bennett) who is collecting firewood on a beach. It is definitely lust at first sight and the fiancee is unceremoniously dumped. Peggy is married to blind painter Tod (Charles Bickford). He was famous in his painting days and has held on to all his unsold paintings which are now quite valuable. Peggy tells Scott she hates her husband. The movie explores how the evil Peggy plays one man off the other.
This was the last film Renoir made in Hollywood. The studio meddled extensively and and it was a big flop. I thought it was watchable but not up to the high standards I expect from Renoir. I would watch this cast in anything and it is quite good. They should have radically simplified the script.
