In an interesting reversal of the norm that wouldn't be out of place in a neo noir production, this entertaining thriller features a man in danger and a strong woman who does everything in her power to save him from someone who wants to see him destroyed. The drama begins with the couple's chance meeting on a train, their instant attraction to each other and the problems that their relationship initially encounters due to the ways in which the man is still suffering from the consequences of a tragedy that he suffered a year earlier, when his fiancée was killed in a car accident on the night before their wedding.
Ellen Foster (Betsy Drake) had been travelling by train from her home in Minnesota to visit her Aunt Amelia (Florence Bates) when she met her aunt's charming neighbour, Jeff Cohalan (Robert Young) who lives on the California coast and earns a good living as a well-respected and successful architect. She's strongly impressed when she sees his beautiful, ultra-modern home and after some initial reluctance on Jeff's part, gets shown around its spacious interior. When Jeff goes to show her a valuable statuette that he's proud of, he surprisingly finds it broken beyond repair and Ellen leaves shortly after.
Expressing some surprise that Ellen had been invited into Jeff's house, Aunt Amelia tells her niece about the tragedy that had befallen him a year earlier and counsels her that she may encounter some problems if she becomes too close to him because he's remained in an obviously fragile emotional state ever since his fiancée's death.
Undaunted, Ellen continues to see Jeff and witnesses the continuation of his bad luck that manifests with his horse having to be destroyed because of a leg injury for which there seemed to be no logical explanation and the poisonings of his dog and his favourite rosebush. Ellen works for an insurance company and because of the actuarial work she does, knows that there's no way that such a sequence of incidents could possibly happen purely by chance.. Convinced that Jeff is the victim of some sort of plot against him, she embarks on her own investigation to discover who's responsible.
During her investigation, Jeff's house gets destroyed by fire, Ellen almost gets run over by a speeding car and she also gets told by local general practitioner Dr Hartley (Morris Carnovsky) that he considers Jeff to be paranoid, consumed with guilt over his fiancée's death and potentially a serious danger to her if she doesn't leave him without delay. Ellen's determination and belief in the man she loves, give her the resilience she needs to remain undeterred and eventually, to discover the lead that enables her to unmask the culprit and ultimately free Jeff from the torment he'd been suffering for so long.
The style and content of the voiceover narration by Ellen at the beginning of this movie is strikingly similar to that which begins Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca" (1950) and this has, over the years, understandably led to numerous comparisons being made between the two Gothic-style thrillers. It's fair to say that "The Second Woman" is no "Rebecca" rip-off and has a very different plot which nicely sets up a mystery and then provides plenty of intrigue and enjoyment in discovering what follows. It's so enjoyable, in fact, that it's quite surprising that it hasn't achieved greater recognition and the higher profile that it actually deserves.
Ellen Foster (Betsy Drake) had been travelling by train from her home in Minnesota to visit her Aunt Amelia (Florence Bates) when she met her aunt's charming neighbour, Jeff Cohalan (Robert Young) who lives on the California coast and earns a good living as a well-respected and successful architect. She's strongly impressed when she sees his beautiful, ultra-modern home and after some initial reluctance on Jeff's part, gets shown around its spacious interior. When Jeff goes to show her a valuable statuette that he's proud of, he surprisingly finds it broken beyond repair and Ellen leaves shortly after.
Expressing some surprise that Ellen had been invited into Jeff's house, Aunt Amelia tells her niece about the tragedy that had befallen him a year earlier and counsels her that she may encounter some problems if she becomes too close to him because he's remained in an obviously fragile emotional state ever since his fiancée's death.
Undaunted, Ellen continues to see Jeff and witnesses the continuation of his bad luck that manifests with his horse having to be destroyed because of a leg injury for which there seemed to be no logical explanation and the poisonings of his dog and his favourite rosebush. Ellen works for an insurance company and because of the actuarial work she does, knows that there's no way that such a sequence of incidents could possibly happen purely by chance.. Convinced that Jeff is the victim of some sort of plot against him, she embarks on her own investigation to discover who's responsible.
During her investigation, Jeff's house gets destroyed by fire, Ellen almost gets run over by a speeding car and she also gets told by local general practitioner Dr Hartley (Morris Carnovsky) that he considers Jeff to be paranoid, consumed with guilt over his fiancée's death and potentially a serious danger to her if she doesn't leave him without delay. Ellen's determination and belief in the man she loves, give her the resilience she needs to remain undeterred and eventually, to discover the lead that enables her to unmask the culprit and ultimately free Jeff from the torment he'd been suffering for so long.
The style and content of the voiceover narration by Ellen at the beginning of this movie is strikingly similar to that which begins Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca" (1950) and this has, over the years, understandably led to numerous comparisons being made between the two Gothic-style thrillers. It's fair to say that "The Second Woman" is no "Rebecca" rip-off and has a very different plot which nicely sets up a mystery and then provides plenty of intrigue and enjoyment in discovering what follows. It's so enjoyable, in fact, that it's quite surprising that it hasn't achieved greater recognition and the higher profile that it actually deserves.