Movie Type: Psychological Thriller, Paranoid Thriller
Themes: Woman In Jeopardy, Treacherous Spouses, Death of a Partner
Main Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith, Nigel Bruce, Isobel Elsom
Release Year: 1947
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Humphrey Bogart plays a psychotic killer who disposes of his wives through slow ingestion of poison in The Two Mrs. Carrolls, made in 1945 but shelved for two years because of its similarity to Gaslight. Bogart is Geoffrey Carroll, an artist who paints a portrait of his wife as "The Angel of Death" and then meets Sally Morton (Barbara Stanwyck), with whom he quickly falls in love. In order to get rid of his wife and take up with Sally, Geoffrey slowly poisons his spouse by lacing her nightly glass of warm milk with liberal doses of toxic chemicals. He sends his daughter Beatrice (Ann Carter) away to school and, while the daughter is away, his wife dies. He immediately marries Sally and they appear to be happily together. But a few years pass and Geoffrey begins to work on another "Angel of Death" portrait of Sally, this time after he falls in love with his attractive neighbor Cecily (Alexis Smith). As before, Sally begins to grow weak from the daily nightcap of tainted milk. But complications set in when Cecily demands that she and Geoffrey run away together and the local druggist, Mr. Biagdon (Barry Bernard), presents Geoffrey with a blackmail demand. But Geoffrey overplays his hand when he once again tries to send Beatrice away to school. Sally now begins to suspect her husband is a serial killer. Borrowing a gun from a friend, Sally must defend herself against her deranged and murderous husband. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
While The Two Mrs. Carrolls was a smash hit on the stage, on film it's entertaining, but only reasonably effective. What damages the movie is a hole in the center -- namely, the leading male character. For most of the film, Geoffrey's motivations are fuzzy and unclear; we know he is a murderer, but we don't really know why, and we don't know what his real feelings are for Sally. Did he murder his wife because he's insane, because he needs money, because he loves Sally, or because his work is so important that he must sacrifice anything in order to find the inspiration that enables him to create masterpieces? The audience is eventually told the answer, but it doesn't come across as believable; and though Humphrey Bogart is good in the role, he can't overcome this fatal flaw in the writing. Had the character's motivations been treated in a more imaginative way, in which the director and writer kept the audience guessing at every step, this could have become an asset. Unfortunately, the manner in which it is handled makes it a significant detriment. Still, there's more than a modicum of suspense and interest generated along the way, and Barbara Stanwyck -- operating in "good girl" mode -- and a delightfully selfish Alexis Smith turn in very fine performances. A bit of a disappointment given the talent involved, The Two Mrs. Carrolls is, nonetheless, moderately enjoyable. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Anton Grot - Art Director, Milo Anderson - Costume Designer, Edith Head - Costume Designer, Peter Godfrey - Director, Frederick Richards - Editor, Franz Waxman - Composer (Music Score), Leo F. Forbstein - Musical Direction/Supervision, Perc Westmore - Makeup, J. Peverell Marley - Cinematographer, Mark Hellinger - Producer, Budd S. Friend - Set Designer, Robert Burks - Special Effects, Thomas Job - Screenwriter, Franz Waxman - Makeup Supervisor, Martin Vale - Play Author
Two Mrs. Carrolls, The (1943), a play by Martin Vale. [ Booth Theatre, 585 perf.] Geoffrey Carroll (Victor Jory) is a psychopathic artist living with his wife, Sally (Elisabeth Bergner), in the south of France. While Sally mysteriously weakens, the unfaithful Geoffrey has an affair with Cecily Harden (Irene Worth). Geoffrey's first wife, Harriet (Marjory Clark), visits Sally and warns her that Geoffrey had once tried to kill her with a slow‐working poison. Sally alerts her friend, Guy Pennington (Richard Stapley), who locks Geoffrey in the house and calls the police. Geoffrey takes a lethal dose of his own poison. Martin Vale was the pen name for Marguerite Vale Veiller, the widow of Bayard Veiller. The play was first produced in England but failed when the English version was tried out in America. Seven years later this rewritten version succeeded.
An artist Gerry Carroll (Bogart) meets Sally (Stanwyck) while on a vacation in the country. They develop a romance but Carroll doesn't tell her he's already married.
Suffering from mental illness, Gerry returns home where he paints an impression of his wife as the angel of death and then promptly poisons her. He then marries Sally but after a while he paints Sally as the angel of death.
Film critic Dennis Schwartz wrote, "Britisher Peter Godfrey...directs this inert and overwrought crime/melodrama that never gets over being stagy despite the teaming of Humphrey Bogart and Barbara Stanwyck. There's almost no action, the dialogue is from hunger, and the familiar plot has been better done in many other films...This film never had much of a chance from the beginning. Only Alexis Smith's performance as the scheming other woman was pleasing."[2]
