At first I was interested in "the mystery" of this film. Had Ellen Ewing really married someone else? I assumed not, but was interested to see how it would be resolved. What ensued was just a load of nonsense and I found myself predicting what was next -- "he'll see the reflection of the boat in the water" and "well that's a precarious way to store a large mirror." Oh, and I forgot about the seashell in the pocket of her jacket. I could only imagine this all started with these clues and someone decided to write a movie script around them.
Claudette Colbert is way too good an actress for this, but her wide-eyed I-didn't-do-this-look wore on my last nerve about 30 minutes in. The other frustration was we go straight from a murder scene into prosecuting the case --which by the way was going to be handled by her jilted ex-lover (really?!), and the only clue we're provided with is that "the gun fell on the floor" and whoever did it was wearing gloves. And tough guy Robert Taylor was wasted on this. The best he was given to work with was trying to drown a guy under a spigot on the street.
Of course I deduced the actual villain, but assumed it was to get at Ellen's money. Instead, in the last five minutes the feeble motive was given that it was punishment for having been put in an asylum by Ellen's father, so if she killed him he would have his revenge of her being confined to an asylum too...or if she didn't, he'd kill HER. Why not just do that at the outset and spare us all 126 minutes of a story that doesn't hold together? I literally was laughing at the end at how ridiculous it was. Ugh!
Claudette Colbert is way too good an actress for this, but her wide-eyed I-didn't-do-this-look wore on my last nerve about 30 minutes in. The other frustration was we go straight from a murder scene into prosecuting the case --which by the way was going to be handled by her jilted ex-lover (really?!), and the only clue we're provided with is that "the gun fell on the floor" and whoever did it was wearing gloves. And tough guy Robert Taylor was wasted on this. The best he was given to work with was trying to drown a guy under a spigot on the street.
Of course I deduced the actual villain, but assumed it was to get at Ellen's money. Instead, in the last five minutes the feeble motive was given that it was punishment for having been put in an asylum by Ellen's father, so if she killed him he would have his revenge of her being confined to an asylum too...or if she didn't, he'd kill HER. Why not just do that at the outset and spare us all 126 minutes of a story that doesn't hold together? I literally was laughing at the end at how ridiculous it was. Ugh!