ANOTHER MAN'S POISON: Blu-ray (Eros Films/Angel Productions, 1951) ClassicFlix

 The first film to co-star newlyweds, Bette Davis and Gary Merrill, director, Irving Rapper’s Another Man’s Poison (1951), proved an oft intriguing, though somewhat static whodunit of the Agatha Christie ‘locked room’ ilk, albeit with little of Christie’s yen for fascinating complications and all the clever misdirection Rapper and screenwriter, Val Guest could muster up. Having met and fallen madly in love with their alter egos on the set of Joseph Mankiewicz’s All About Eve (1950), Davis launched headstrong into marriage #4 – her last, only to discover yet another romantic blunder whose passion soon turned rancid with Merrill’s mounting alcoholism. To suggest their marriage was toxic is an understatement, ending in a brutal divorce barely 9 years later. And in viewing Another Man’s Poison today, it seems impossible to separate the adversarial relationship between successful mystery author, Janet Frobisher (Davis) and George Bates (no relation to Norman) from the Davis/Merrill bruhaha that eventually led to the disillusion of their marriage. With brilliant B&W camerawork by cinematographer, Robert Krasker, and swift direction from Rapper, Another Man’s Poison has the trappings of a post-war noir. It also contains some very solid performances from Welsh writer/dramatist and actor, Emlyn Williams, as the intriguingly suspicious Dr. Henderson, fresh-faced and wholesome Barbara Murray as Chris Dale – Ms. Frobisher’s private secretary, and blue-eyed/square-jawed drop-dead handsome, Anthony Steel as Larry Stevens – a love interest for both ladies, and, once described by critics as “a glorious throwback to the Golden Age of Empire... the perfect imperial actor, born out of his time.”

A note about Steel whose on-screen dependability as the “chunky” and “true blue” Englishman always to “portray grace under pressure in wartime” seems, in hindsight, an anathema to his otherwise rough-hewn and rocky reality behind-the-scenes. After several decades of typecasting as an aimable stud for the Rank Organization, Steel wed Swedish actress, Anita Ekberg, moving to Hollywood, but garnering more bad publicity for frequent rows with his wife, assaulting paparazzi, and being arrested twice on DUI’s.  Bitter over his departure from Rank, mogul, John Davis, did much to sabotage Steel’s chances for a comeback. And thus, the actor, never quite as popular as Stewart Granger, and definitely not as accomplished as Kenneth More, settled into his niche, primarily as the hunk du jour, always offered up in support of better talent, almost exclusively – at least in his prime - for his sex appeal. Steel is particularly good, working within these limitations as Larry in Another Man’s Poison – toggling his affections between the sweet-soap-smelling Chris, who loves him madly, and Janet – an insatiable mantrap, jealously seeking to conquer the next best thing. There is a certain nobility to Steel’s performance here, an air of exquisite contradiction and believability. This makes Larry more than just a romantic fop or a heel.

Another Man's Poison is based on Leslie Sand’s 1948 play, Deadlock. In re-authoring it for the screen, Val Guest envisioned Barbara Stanwyck as his leading lady. Alas, life imitating art, in Stanwyck’s discovery, her own husband, Robert Taylor, had been having an affair in Rome while shooting Quo Vadis (1950) led to her decision not to play a similarly themed viper, although it is difficult to imagine the forthright and strong-willed Stanwyck not wanting to put a crimp in Taylor for his indiscretions, as the fictional Janet has already done to her hubby at the outset of our tale.  From here, producer, Dan Angel turned to another Hollywood stalwart, Gloria Swanson to partake. But Swanson had already leapt at an offer to do Broadway. And thus, the project eventually fell to Davis and Merrill, the latter, replacing the already cast, Leo Genn. The PR from having real-life marrieds as a feuding couple on screen had definite cache as, nearly a decade later, the warring Burtons would prove in the tabloids to boost the box office on Cleopatra (1963). However, neither Davis nor Merrill was particularly impressed with Guest’s script. Working in England for a rather large fee convinced them otherwise.  And Davis was especially pleased to have Emlyn Williams and Irving Rapper in her camp. Williams had written the original play on which her 1945 adaptation of The Corn Is Green was based, while Rapper had directed Davis in one of her irrefutably titanic Warner Bros. hits of the 40’s: Now Voyager (1942).

Filming commenced from April to June, 1951, in North Yorkshire (then, Malham, West Riding of Yorkshire), with virtually all of the interiors located inside Nettlefold Studios in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Davis, who could be hard on her co-stars, in this instance was buoyed by her supporting cast, particularly Emlyn, who reworked much of the script in his spare time to add plausibility to her characterization. Alas, Merrill continued to consider even the show’s basic premise ‘crummy’. Yet, while expressing his displeasure, he did virtually nothing to improve upon it - a bone of contention to create immense friction on the set between him and his wife. The chief difficulty appears to have been the play’s loquacious vignettes. While the stage succeeds in its ‘revelations via dialogue’, the movies have always coped much better in their illustrations through action. Still, Another Man’s Poison is not a total wash, its expedition into murder and unanswered passion occasionally moving beyond the artifice. Suspense is intermittently stirred, ably abetted by Williams, Steel and Murray. Davis, still sporting her full-bodied/Margo Channing, All About Eve haircut, is playing this one to the rafters. Occasionally, her histrionics go well beyond the acceptable gamut – even for a gal with Bette Davis’ eyes. The Davis/Merrill chemistry, so infectious and potent in All About Eve, also appears herein to be going through similar emotions already played to the hilt in that aforementioned movie. So, Davis and Merrill have entered the ‘old married couple’ phase of their careers, killing time as they damn near try to kill each other.

Our story begins, one dark and stormy night, as successful mystery novelist, Janet Frobisher is returning home from the train depot.  Separated for years from her spurious husband, whose criminal past is about to catch up to him, Janet lives in an isolated manor overlooking the moors in Northern England. Her nearest neighbor is Dr. Henderson – a real busy-body and amateur sleuth besides. In hubby’s absence, Janet has been indulging her dishonorable intentions with Larry, the man to whom her private, secretary Chris is already engaged. Larry’s a heel and he knows it. Thus, after Janet accepts a ride home from Henderson to establish her alibi, she quickly telephones Larry, hoping for another clandestine rendezvous. But Larry is presently with Chris and resists the offer to slink back to Janet’s home for a little flagrante delicto.  This, after Janet has already poisoned her husband by administering a lethal dose of a veterinarian’s narcotic given by Dr. Henderson for her horse - Fury. Too bad for Janet, one of her husband’s old criminal contacts, George Bates, has resurfaced, and broken into their home to extort his blackmail and revenge at the point of a pistol. Janet avoids engaging George in his demands until it becomes quite clear he intends to harm her if she fails to produce her husband immediately. Instead, Janet reveals the body, still slumped over a chair in the library. Ah, but now George begins to have second thoughts.

Since no one has seen the deceased, why not assume his identity now to partake of the late man’s riches? Naturally, Janet is against this wrinkle. But when Henderson makes an impromptu visit to the estate, George pretends to be Janet’s husband, forcing her to accept him to save her own face. The cohorts thereafter weigh the body down and sink it into silence in the sea. So far, the premise has been skillfully laid out. But then, Guest’s screenplay becomes mired in the particulars of George and Janet’s growing displeasure over their arrangement. She wants him gone – and fast. He, having figured out her affair with Larry, helps to expose it to Chris, who briefly teeters on the brink of leaving without her fiancé.  Certainly, she has no intention of remaining in Janet’s employ. Meanwhile, Henderson continues to skulk around for clues. Something about George just does not fit, a suspicion exacerbated when the manor’s housekeeper, Mrs. Bunting (Edna Morris) hints of an old wedding photo somewhere in the house that looks nothing like the man now presuming to be Janet’s ever-loving husband. Janet begs Larry to let Chris go. But Larry, suspecting he has blundered into an awful marital quagmire (though, precisely how ugly, he certainly cannot fathom), elects to quietly escape it, going after Chris for his own. After George discovers Janet and Larry locked in their farewell embrace, he deliberately kills Fury as revenge, suggesting the horse broke its leg on the moors and needed to be put out of its misery. However, when Henderson examines the remains, he finds no broken limbs and only a single bullet to the head as the cause of death.

Informing Janet his Jeep is no longer roadworthy, Henderson asks to leave it behind on the estate while he goes into town for a replacement. Seeing her opportunity for revenge, Janet feigns a reconciliation with George, promising to go away with him, but only if he will take the Jeep into town to go after Larry and Chris, to ensure they wind up back together. Falling for Janet’s act, George discovers too late the Jeep has no brakes. It careens over the edge of a cliff and falls into the sea during a hellish rainstorm. Miraculously, George survives. But the incident causes the local authorities to dredge the spot to recover the vehicle. During their search, they find the weighted remains of Janet’s real husband. Facing an inquest, and certain incarceration, Janet implores George to runaway with her after they share a drink. George agrees, before realizing Janet has spiked his liquor with the same poison, she used to murder her husband. As George expires, Henderson arrives, confiding all along he knew George was an imposter as the real George had stopped by his house before arriving home on the night of the murder. Janet feigns a fainting spell, rescued by Henderson who inadvertently offers her a drink from the same poisoned cup that killed George. Forgetting herself momentarily, Janet accepts the cup, then realizing she too is not long for this world, bursts into a fitful laughter from which her last breathes are fast coming to an end.

Another Man’s Poison has its wicked moments of minor genius. And it has Bette Davis to recommend it too. Davis could make even the most convivial dreck sparkle, and herein she gets the opportunity to work it to the bone, proving, despite the relative absurdity of the plot, she can sell much of it as legit wares from the highfalutin cabinet of English-drawing-room melodramas. Her sparing with Gary Merrill’s George gets props, as without her constantly emasculating nature, Merrill’s enterprising fool is less of a conspirator and very much the beady-eyed knave and sacrificial lamb. That he loses everything in the end, in spite of his upper hand at the outset, is pretty much a foregone conclusion. Steel and Murray make a well-tailored couple on the rocks, to forgive each other everything and escape from this perilous game of cat and mouse, virtually unscathed. Williams’ meddlesome ‘good doctor’ gets a little irritating until the last act when he reveals all to the dying Ms. Frobisher. John Greenwood and Paul Sawtell’s underscore adds appropriate flourish to the mounting dread, while Cedric Dawes’ art direction, and Julie Harris’ costuming provide gorgeous visual touches to augment the characters and settings with the appropriately crisp and droll English flare. If it occasionally seems slightly off, it’s only because Davis and Merrill are decidedly too-too American for their surroundings – like putting Paul Revere and Betsy Ross in an Agatha Christie whodunit. Otherwise, and despite its shortcomings, Another Man’s Poison emerges as an odd, but serviceable thriller in which the thrills oft take a backseat to the characterizations. Mercifully, these are rich and plentiful.

Another Man’s Poison arrives on Blu-ray via ClassicFlix (CF), a company I hold in high regard for their never-waning commitment to restoring and preserving classic movies in exceptional condition. On a limited budget, CF has managed to achieve monumental results. The B&W image here is virtually pristine, with exquisite amounts of fine film grain accurately reproduced. Tonality is perfect and contrast is bang on. Fine details abound throughout. There is no hint of age-related damage here, and, even better, no untoward digital tinkering to artificially sharpen the image. This one looks perfect in 1080p! The 2.0 DTS mono is adequate for this presentation. There are no extras – a forgivable oversight. Bottom line: Another Man’s Poison is a better than average movie, put forth for future generations to admire in a quality that will surely not disappoint. And it's a movie to likely find a far broader fan base than just for Bette Davis completionists! Were that the company could get their hands on some other studios’ product and work their restoration magic to achieve results similarly.  Not a great movie by any means, but one well worth your renewed time and consideration, and looking decades younger, thanks to ClassicFlix. Wow, and thank you!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

5

EXTRAS

0