IMDb RATING
6.8/10
2.8K
YOUR RATING
Resentful of her small-town life, a married woman schemes to run off with a rich businessman.Resentful of her small-town life, a married woman schemes to run off with a rich businessman.Resentful of her small-town life, a married woman schemes to run off with a rich businessman.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 nomination total
Joel Allen
- Minister
- (uncredited)
Gail Bonney
- Woman
- (uncredited)
Frances Charles
- Miss Elliott
- (uncredited)
James Craven
- Man with Photographs
- (uncredited)
Ann Doran
- Edith Williams
- (uncredited)
June Evans
- Woman
- (uncredited)
Bess Flowers
- Secretary
- (uncredited)
Hal Gerard
- Waiter
- (uncredited)
Creighton Hale
- Townsman with Glasses
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBette Davis thought Joseph Cotten was all wrong for the role of her husband, saying: "He's adorable. What in the world would she leave him for?"
- GoofsNear the end, as Rosa prepares to catch the Chicago train, the camera dollies backwards, away from her, and as it does, the equipment bangs into her closet door, causing the clothes hanging on it to sway back-and-forth.
- Quotes
Rosa Moline: What a dump!
- Crazy creditsThe film begins after the opening credits with this warning title: This is the story of evil. Evil is headstrong - is puffed up. For our souls sake, it is salutory for us to view it in all it's ugly nakedness once in a while. Thus may we know how those who deliver themselves over to it end up like the scorpion, in a mad frenzy stinging themselves to eternal death.
Featured review
An intense Bette Davis in a forceful Ibsenesque melodrama
It was interesting seeing this soon after seeing The Man Who Wasn't There, the Coen brothers would-be 40s film-noir. Both movies are set in small towns, have way-out plots involving violent crime and illicit love, and feature main protagonists trying to get out of a rut. But whereas the Coens' nouveau-noir plays it deadpan, philosophical and slow, and thereby risks boring the audience stiff; the genuine article with King Vidor at the helm, races along, goes way over the top, and glues the viewer to the screen.
Melodramatic and flawed though it may be, I don't go along with those who regard the movie merely as a camp vehicle for some arch Bette Davis overacting as the "evil" Rosa Moline. This film has genuine substance and potency, and Hedda Gabler-like Rosa's near-hysterical exasperation with the suffocating small town atmosphere - symbolised by the ever-present smoke and dust from the local sawmill - and with her dull, worthy, medico husband (Joseph Cotton), must have rung a bell with many American and other women in the stifling post-war years. Her "What a dump!" quite probably echoed their inner thoughts, as may her reluctance to have a baby (contrasted in the film with another woman's eighth, delivered by the good doctor). Moreover, despite Davis playing a woman at least 10 years younger than her actual age, her scenes with David Brian as her wealthy lover are truly erotic, and some of the lines may raise eyebrows even today.
Those who dismiss this film should perhaps give it another chance, try to place it in the context of its era, and possibly ponder on how some of the "cool" masterpieces of today will be viewed by their grandchildren in 50 years time.
Melodramatic and flawed though it may be, I don't go along with those who regard the movie merely as a camp vehicle for some arch Bette Davis overacting as the "evil" Rosa Moline. This film has genuine substance and potency, and Hedda Gabler-like Rosa's near-hysterical exasperation with the suffocating small town atmosphere - symbolised by the ever-present smoke and dust from the local sawmill - and with her dull, worthy, medico husband (Joseph Cotton), must have rung a bell with many American and other women in the stifling post-war years. Her "What a dump!" quite probably echoed their inner thoughts, as may her reluctance to have a baby (contrasted in the film with another woman's eighth, delivered by the good doctor). Moreover, despite Davis playing a woman at least 10 years younger than her actual age, her scenes with David Brian as her wealthy lover are truly erotic, and some of the lines may raise eyebrows even today.
Those who dismiss this film should perhaps give it another chance, try to place it in the context of its era, and possibly ponder on how some of the "cool" masterpieces of today will be viewed by their grandchildren in 50 years time.
helpful•265
- Geofbob
- Nov 19, 2001
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,300,000
- Runtime1 hour 37 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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