Generally regarded as director Nicholas Ray's least successful movie, "A Woman's Secret" is based on the novel "Mortgage on Life" by Vicki Baum and tells the story of an investigation into the near-fatal shooting of a well-known young singer. What transpired before the shooting is revealed through a series of flashbacks with some pieces of information proving to be more reliable than others and very little being discovered which could explain why the victim's mentor so readily confessed to the crime.
Following one of her radio broadcasts, popular singer Susan Caldwell (Gloria Grahame), who's known professionally as Estrellita, returns to the apartment she shares with her mentor Marian Washburn (Maureen O'Hara) and announces that she intends to give up her singing career. This leads to a very animated quarrel, a physical struggle and a gun being fired that leaves Susan critically injured before Marian, very calmly and without hesitation, calls for medical help and reports the incident to the police.
Police Inspector Jim Fowler (Jay C Flippen) leads the investigation and Marian's business partner Luke Jordan (Melvyn Douglas) hires attorney Brook Matthews (Victor Jory) to defend her. Jordan, who believes implicitly in Marian's innocence, explains to Fowler that she'd enjoyed a successful career as a singer before having contracted a throat ailment that damaged her voice and led to her retirement. Some time later, they had jointly "discovered" Susan and steered her to success but despite this she'd remained as unsophisticated and unstable as she'd been when they first knew her and didn't appreciate the value of her new career. Susan's attitude frustrated and irritated Marian who'd invested so much of her time and effort into coaching her protégée. Would this have fully explained why Marian was so desperate to prevent Susan from giving up her career or was there more to their relationship than meets the eye?
"A Woman's Secret" begins well and remains intriguing through most of its running time but unfortunately leads to a conclusion that disappoints. No doubt, this is the main reason why the movie was a commercial flop and still remains so unappreciated many years after its first release. Despite this, however, it's not entirely without merit because there are some good performances (particularly from Gloria Grahame, Jay C Flippen and Melvyn Douglas), some enjoyable humour and amusing dialogue (e.g. when Jordan describes Susan as having "a voice with hormones"). The flashback structure also creates an impression of more substance than would have been the case if the drama had simply been presented in linear form.
Interestingly, during the making of this movie, another drama was being played out behind the cameras, as Nicholas Ray and Gloria Grahame had an affair which led to their unsuccessful marriage and divorce. This had been Grahame's second marriage and after her third one also ended in divorce, she subsequently married Ray's son, Anthony in 1960.
Following one of her radio broadcasts, popular singer Susan Caldwell (Gloria Grahame), who's known professionally as Estrellita, returns to the apartment she shares with her mentor Marian Washburn (Maureen O'Hara) and announces that she intends to give up her singing career. This leads to a very animated quarrel, a physical struggle and a gun being fired that leaves Susan critically injured before Marian, very calmly and without hesitation, calls for medical help and reports the incident to the police.
Police Inspector Jim Fowler (Jay C Flippen) leads the investigation and Marian's business partner Luke Jordan (Melvyn Douglas) hires attorney Brook Matthews (Victor Jory) to defend her. Jordan, who believes implicitly in Marian's innocence, explains to Fowler that she'd enjoyed a successful career as a singer before having contracted a throat ailment that damaged her voice and led to her retirement. Some time later, they had jointly "discovered" Susan and steered her to success but despite this she'd remained as unsophisticated and unstable as she'd been when they first knew her and didn't appreciate the value of her new career. Susan's attitude frustrated and irritated Marian who'd invested so much of her time and effort into coaching her protégée. Would this have fully explained why Marian was so desperate to prevent Susan from giving up her career or was there more to their relationship than meets the eye?
"A Woman's Secret" begins well and remains intriguing through most of its running time but unfortunately leads to a conclusion that disappoints. No doubt, this is the main reason why the movie was a commercial flop and still remains so unappreciated many years after its first release. Despite this, however, it's not entirely without merit because there are some good performances (particularly from Gloria Grahame, Jay C Flippen and Melvyn Douglas), some enjoyable humour and amusing dialogue (e.g. when Jordan describes Susan as having "a voice with hormones"). The flashback structure also creates an impression of more substance than would have been the case if the drama had simply been presented in linear form.
Interestingly, during the making of this movie, another drama was being played out behind the cameras, as Nicholas Ray and Gloria Grahame had an affair which led to their unsuccessful marriage and divorce. This had been Grahame's second marriage and after her third one also ended in divorce, she subsequently married Ray's son, Anthony in 1960.