Khun Kru Mark 'Bedelia' is directed confidently by Lance Comfort whose unsubtle and brisk style of direction kept him busy on the B-movie circuit and inevitably into TV work during the 1950s.Interestingly; the story was written by Vera Caspary who specialized in stories about women getting into trouble, including 'Laura', later made famous, of course, by Hitchcock.Not every film made in the 1940s was a 'Noir'. I see this term being used to describe films that were made in black and white rather than what they actually are... and Bedelia is NOT in my view in any shape or form a 'noir' as I understand one to be. There are certainly no hard-boiled cynical characters, bleak sleazy settings or overly-emphasized shadowy lit scenes here.Bedelia is a well-crafted suspense movie with memorable characters and performances. Margaret Lockwood is a treat to watch as her pathological insanity slowly reveals itself. The plot is simple yet captivating and (despite everything being laid out rather too obviously) the uptempo direction works well to keep the spectator focused.Thankfully the drama comes across naturally and doesn't descend into melodrama... which is just as well as there is no comic relief at all in this yarn. Ian Hunter is especially convincing as the poor husband who has the job of dealing with all the women in his life.There's a good copy of this on YouTube so what are you waiting for? Get that mug of Horlicks, draw the curtains kick off your shoes!

writers_reign Journeyman director Lance Comfort never did much that wasn't ephemeral and here he turns in another ho-hum melodrama from a novel by Vera Caspary, which the author set in the New England of 1913, on the eve of one war and which now finds itself in Old England in 1945, at the end of another. Margatet Lockwood is clearly hiding a secret or why else would she refuse vehemently to have her photograph taken and Barry K Barnes is equally clearly something more than the artist he purports to be. Alas, it's hard to work up much of a sweat about any of this and though we do stick around for the revelation that Bedelia (Lockwood) is a serial rich husband killer and Barnes is really an insurance investigator it's hard to care one way or the other. The whole thing is done well enough with all departments - script, photography, directing, acting being up to snuff but it really does lack that 'little something extra' that Ellen Terry spoke of. Worth a look but that's all.

ottoflop I first saw this film late at night in 1965. Very well done and both Lockwood and Anne Crawford (a sadly overlooked actress) are in their prime. After viewing this film, I came across the book written by Vera Caspary and was surprised to find that in the book the story was set in Connecticut during the Christmas tide of 1913; rather than England in 1946. At that time, many films had a late Victorian/early Edwardian setting and it was of interest to me that the period was updated to modern (1946) days. One key point of the period setting was the fact that after a snowstorm the characters were isolated and news was slower to reach people in 1913. One wonders what this film would have been like had the period setting been left intact.On a trivia note, this film was one of the few independent productions made at Ealing Studios without the "Ealing Team" being involved.

noir guy Above-average post-War British noir melodrama, based on a novel by Vera (LAURA) Caspay, directed by the prolific Lance Comfort (see also the post-War British 'Spiv' movie SILENT DUST) and starring Margaret (THE WICKED LADY) Lockwood as the titular femme fatale who, as per her Stateside counterparts Gene Tierney (LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN), Lana Turner (THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE) and Barbara Stanwyck (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) offs those men who stand in her way; in this case to collect on their life insurance. Trailed by an apparent artist, the enigmatic and not altogether likeable Ben Chaney (Barry K. Barnes - see also DANCING WITH CRIME), Bedelia finds her path to greater riches (the policy held by her latest wealthy husband, Charlie) thwarted at every turn, before events come to a head in a wintry Gothic country estate in the north of England. The British settings add an air of gentility, but it's the somewhat surprisingly sympathetic take on Lockwood's character that softens the often misogynistic genre set-up as Bedelia, often clad in a variety of striking shimmery creations, actually registers more strongly as a protagonist than the often unemphatic or similarly deceitful supporting characters. Directed at a brisk pace by Comfort, this is an engaging work, that more than hints at simmering tensions beneath a deceptively straightforward drawing-room mise en scene and in which, given the well-upholstered backdrops (as well as Lockwood!), it's not difficult to read the subtext on class (a common enough feature in British genre cinema). This film, whilst not in itself being an upper class work, is a decent enough diversion. Middle-class stuff, then, and none the worse for that.