Themes: Infidelity, Femmes Fatales, Hide the Dead Body
Main Cast: Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Emlyn Williams, Anthony Steel, Barbara Murray
Release Year: 1951
Country: UK
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
Bette Davis co-stars with her then-new husband Gary Merrill in the British melodrama Another Man's Poison. Adapted from Leslie Sands' novel Deadlock, the story concerns one Janet Frobisher (Davis), a successful writer of suspense novels. Janet's life is thrown into turmoil when her disreputable long-lost husband, returns after a three-year absence. So as not to destroy her current romantic involvement with Larry (Anthony Steel), the fiancé of her secretary Chris (Barbara Murray), Janet poisons her inconvenient spouse and disposes of the body. At this point, George Bates (Gary Merrill), the dead husband's criminal accomplice, comes calling, demanding "hush money." So that he can keep an eye on Janet, George poses as her husband. Now, Janet is obliged to begin plotting George's demise. A heart-stopping surprise ending tops this nasty but effective little morality play. Another Man's Poison was distributed stateside by RKO Radio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
No one will ever accuse Another Man's Poison of being a great film, but it's certainly an entertaining one, especially for those who relish Bette Davis' more over-the-top performances. While certainly nothing to compare with her turn in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, the star's work here is a delicious mixture of consummate skill and sheer camp. That latter adjective is in no way meant as a criticism; Davis was working here with material that needed a "kick in the pants" approach. Poison has one of those scripts that can be enjoyed on a solely mechanical level, meaning that its plot twists and turns are fun but in no way relate to real life and that it is populated with characters that exist only on the stage or screen rather than in real life (and behave in a manner similarly unlike real life). Emlyn Williams understands this, and his performance, while quite different from Davis', is on the same plain of existence. This is not true of Gary Merrill's, whose work is far too dull. Irving Rapper seems to have his hands full just keeping some sort of lid on Davis, and so the rest of the film wanders a bit. But whenever Davis is around, it certainly catches fire. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Successful mysterynovelist Janet Frobisher, who has been separated for years from her husband, a man with a criminal past, lives in an isolated home in England. Her nearest neighbor is nosy veterinarian Dr. Henderson. Janet falls in love and occasionally dabbles with her secretary Chris' fiancé Larry, who is years younger than she. When her estranged husband unexpectedly appears, Janet poisons him by administering horse mediciation given to her by her neighbor. One of the deceased man's criminal cohorts arrives as she's preparing to dispose of the body in the local lake. When Frobisher's secretary and Larry arrive at the secluded house, the mysterious man, who has assisted her with her scheme, impersonates the long-absent spouse of Janet, who plots to get rid of her unplanned accomplice, as well.
Production notes
Of the project, star Bette Davis recalled, "We had nothing but script trouble. Gary [Merril] and I often wondered why we agreed to make this film after we got started working on it. Emlyn [Williams] rewrote many scenes for us, which gave it some plausibility, but we never cured the basic ills of the story."[1]
This was the second on-screen pairing of then-married couple Davis and Gary Merrill, following All About Eve the previous year.
Rapper, who was selected by Davis to helm the film, had directed her in Now, Voyager ten years earlier.
The New York Times described the film as "a garrulous but occasionally interesting excursion into murder and unrequited love . . . the script . . . is basically a static affair that rarely escapes from its sets or the scenarist's verbosity. Suspense is only fitfully generated and then quickly dissipated . . . Gary Merrill contributes a thoroughly seasoned and convincing portrayal . . . Emlyn Williams adds a professionally polished characterization . . . and Anthony Steel and Barbara Murray are adequate . . . However, Another Man's Poison is strictly Bette Davis' meat. She is permitted a wide latitude of histrionics in delineating the designing neurotic who is as flinty a killer as any we've seen in the recent past."[2]
In his review in New Statesman and Nation, Frank Hauser wrote, "No one has ever accused Bette Davis of failing to rise to a good script; what this film shows is how far she can go to meet a bad one."[3]
References
^Mother Goddam by Whitney Stine, with a running commentary by Bette Davis, Hawthorn Books, 1974, pg. 241 (ISBN 0-8015-5184-6)
