(There are spoilers) Breaking into the mansion of famous mystery writer Janet Frobisher, Bette Davis,for a prearranged meeting with her husband Preston bank robber George Bates, Garry Merrill, is shocked to find out that his partner in crime had been murdered by his estranged wife. Janet who's been having an affair with her secretary Chris', Barbara Murry, boyfriend Larry, Anthony Steel, had been surprised to find her old man, Preston, getting into the mix by using her home as a safe house to later, when the heats off, take off on a steam ship out of the country with his fellow bank robber Bates. Janet gave the fugitive a drink laced with a strong sedative that was prescribed by local veterinarian Dr. Hnderson, Emlyn Williams, for her horse Fury that put Preston to sleep forever.
With one of the bank guards shot and seriously wounded during the robbery by Preston Bates want's to save his neck from the hangman's rope, if the guard dies and he's caught by the police, to have Preston admit he was the one who shot him and even has Preston's gun and the fingerprints that go along with it to prove it. Bates efforts are now all moot since he's, Preston, no longer around to face justice.
We now have this very complicated scenario in the film where Bates, after he and Janet deep six Preston's body in a nearby lake, impersonates Preston as his now wife Janet secretly connives to also murder him in order to keep Bates from implicating her in her husbands murder. It's never really explained why Janet murdered Preston in the first place all we know is that she did the guy in just because he may have gotten in the way of her affair with Larry but why kill the man since he was separated from Janet for some three years and couldn't care less if she was having a love affair with Larry or anyone else? All Preston wanted was to get away from the police and check out of the country.
For all her smarts Janet is outsmarted by Bates, who's on to her back-stabbing tactics, at almost every turn with him surviving a near-fatal car crash, that she secretly arraigned for him, and then for some reason not at all fully explained, in fact as Bates' was about to tell her just before he suddenly fell ill from a poisoned drink that Janet gave him, why he killed her prized horse Fury. Bates claiming that the horse broke it's leg, a bald face lie on Bates' part, and that he was forced to shoot it gets Janet to lose her composure and almost spill the beans on herself to who really Bates' is and why he's impersonating her husband, because she murdered him and got rid of the body.
While all this is going on both Larry and Chris drop in at the Frobisher Estate for a stay over the weekend which makes things even more confusing with Larry finding out that his secret love, Janet, is now back with her husband! At the same time Chris begins to realize that he's, Larry, dropping her for not only her boss, Janet, but for a much older, Janet is 43 and Chris is 22, woman to boot!
The big break in the case comes from non other then the friendly and somewhat overbearing Dr. Hernderson who it later turns out knows a lot more about both Bates and Preston that he's been letting on, which is total ignorance, and is himself playing some kind of mind game, like a junior Sherlock Holmes, on his own to trap both Janet and Bates and bring the two scoundrels to justice. Dr. Henderson is beaten to the punch by both Janet & Bates at the end of the movie by the two playing an even bigger, and deadlier, game or trick on each other.
Not one of Bette Davis' better films but her interaction with Garry Merrill, her husband at the time, is really worth watching as the two try to one-up each other in trying to pull off the perfect crime at the others expense with both ending up on the losing side.
With one of the bank guards shot and seriously wounded during the robbery by Preston Bates want's to save his neck from the hangman's rope, if the guard dies and he's caught by the police, to have Preston admit he was the one who shot him and even has Preston's gun and the fingerprints that go along with it to prove it. Bates efforts are now all moot since he's, Preston, no longer around to face justice.
We now have this very complicated scenario in the film where Bates, after he and Janet deep six Preston's body in a nearby lake, impersonates Preston as his now wife Janet secretly connives to also murder him in order to keep Bates from implicating her in her husbands murder. It's never really explained why Janet murdered Preston in the first place all we know is that she did the guy in just because he may have gotten in the way of her affair with Larry but why kill the man since he was separated from Janet for some three years and couldn't care less if she was having a love affair with Larry or anyone else? All Preston wanted was to get away from the police and check out of the country.
For all her smarts Janet is outsmarted by Bates, who's on to her back-stabbing tactics, at almost every turn with him surviving a near-fatal car crash, that she secretly arraigned for him, and then for some reason not at all fully explained, in fact as Bates' was about to tell her just before he suddenly fell ill from a poisoned drink that Janet gave him, why he killed her prized horse Fury. Bates claiming that the horse broke it's leg, a bald face lie on Bates' part, and that he was forced to shoot it gets Janet to lose her composure and almost spill the beans on herself to who really Bates' is and why he's impersonating her husband, because she murdered him and got rid of the body.
While all this is going on both Larry and Chris drop in at the Frobisher Estate for a stay over the weekend which makes things even more confusing with Larry finding out that his secret love, Janet, is now back with her husband! At the same time Chris begins to realize that he's, Larry, dropping her for not only her boss, Janet, but for a much older, Janet is 43 and Chris is 22, woman to boot!
The big break in the case comes from non other then the friendly and somewhat overbearing Dr. Hernderson who it later turns out knows a lot more about both Bates and Preston that he's been letting on, which is total ignorance, and is himself playing some kind of mind game, like a junior Sherlock Holmes, on his own to trap both Janet and Bates and bring the two scoundrels to justice. Dr. Henderson is beaten to the punch by both Janet & Bates at the end of the movie by the two playing an even bigger, and deadlier, game or trick on each other.
Not one of Bette Davis' better films but her interaction with Garry Merrill, her husband at the time, is really worth watching as the two try to one-up each other in trying to pull off the perfect crime at the others expense with both ending up on the losing side.