Review of So Evil My Love

I always thought Ray Milland was better in roles where he was allowed to show a darker side of his personality. The Lost Weekend garnered him a much deserved Oscar, showing that dark side which lurked beneath the charming exterior. Here he proves it to a tee once more. This role allows Milland to reach, and believe me he does it with a sinister charm that no one could resist. As the talented artist, much before his time, he uses women and men alike to rob and manipulate to have the life he thinks he deserves. Ann Todd as the missionary widow is totally captivated by this sly womanizer. She falls under his spell, and we see her transformed into a shadow of him. However we should not have been surprised of this change, as in the first scene we see her recently widowed letting the sea spray over her as if to release her from her confines. She thinks he is only true to her, but of course we know better. He struggles with his feelings for her, as maybe he sees her in the beginning as a shy woman, but toward the end he sees her much as himself. He is eventually having to come to terms with the fact that he has also fallen into her spell, and indeed does love her. We like the character of the artist here as a man in love for the first time, hoping against hope that all will end well, him being made over by love. Sadly, it does not end well when she meets the other woman, wearing the locket that she had given him. She was always capable of evil deeds, even though she showed everyone but him her other side. I wished it had ended with the declaration of his love being enough for her, but of course it was not. She realized that everything from the beginning was all about him. However she not only killed him she killed herself in the long run. Great film noir to be watched over and over again. Just got done reading the novel by Shearing. The book is quite different from the film. In the book, Olivia had always the idea to blackmail Susan's husband. The painter is not as large an evil presence in the book. Which if you think about both it was always Olivia, and the painter as evil as she was the push that she needed to pursue the evil deeds, leading to her own demise in the end.