As so often happened in Hollywood back in the day, form outweighs content in this movie. Basically it's a soap opera. But thanks to excellent movie-making craftsmanship, it's a soaper well worth watching--very enjoyable.
The cast is excellent, and outshining them all is Joan Crawford, marching through her ultra-neat mansion like a drill sergeant. With her broad padded shoulders, butch hairdo, flashing eyes and jutting jaw, she scares the pants off any weak man, and, alas, Wendell Corey as her husband is that man, a fine fellow but eminently malleable and trusting, at least until the last part of the movie.
To me the best part of the movie consists of the two final confrontations between Crawford and Corey. The movie is full of great lines but the rapid-fire exchanges in these confrontations, delivered with expert timing, are just super. Fine work by writers Anne Froelich and James Gunn.
Of course I spent the whole movie waiting for that vase to be smashed! The closing shot of Crawford left with her husband's lavish house but not much else, is a powerful ending.
The cast is excellent, and outshining them all is Joan Crawford, marching through her ultra-neat mansion like a drill sergeant. With her broad padded shoulders, butch hairdo, flashing eyes and jutting jaw, she scares the pants off any weak man, and, alas, Wendell Corey as her husband is that man, a fine fellow but eminently malleable and trusting, at least until the last part of the movie.
To me the best part of the movie consists of the two final confrontations between Crawford and Corey. The movie is full of great lines but the rapid-fire exchanges in these confrontations, delivered with expert timing, are just super. Fine work by writers Anne Froelich and James Gunn.
Of course I spent the whole movie waiting for that vase to be smashed! The closing shot of Crawford left with her husband's lavish house but not much else, is a powerful ending.