First, a few things about me:
One, I'm retired. Yep, done with work, thank God. Two, I'm divorced. Three, I am a bit of an insomniac.
Since I have lots of free time & I don't sleep through every night, I find myself awake at weird hours. So, I dial up different movies and other shows previously recorded.
In this installment of O.D.O.M., is a movie I saw recently, "The Two Mrs. Carrolls" (1947), starring Humphrey Bogart and Barbara Stanwyck.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039926/
Spoilers:
Overall, I liked the movie. I am a huge Bogart fan, and post-Casablanca he delved into a wider variety of lead roles. Here, he plays a villain, a bit driven and closed-off, possibly psychotic. Stanwyck was a versatile, highly capable lead actress. In this movie, her character was more vulnerable than some of her more familiar roles.
A revelation was the young Ann Carter, as Bogart's daughter from his previous marriage. She was very comfortable in front of the camera, and almost too self-possessed for one so young.
Alexis Smith, as Bogart's latest love interest, was luminous. In her scenes with Bogart, she held her own quite nicely. I enjoy her work, in this and other movies like "Hollywood Canteen" (where she had a cameo as herself).
One thing that struck me was how Bogart played the villain role. While wooing Stanwyck's character in the beginning of the movie, he seemed more well-rounded, more human. There was a connection between the two characters that seemed real. As he proceeded, he seemed more one-dimensional. In subsequent scenes, we get little explanation as to why his personality changed for the worse.
As a non-critic movie buff, there are other roles of his I enjoyed more. I would watch this movie again, though.
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