They Won't Believe Me

Infobox_Film
name = They Won't Believe Me


image_size = 260
caption = Lobby Card
director = Irving Pichel
producer = Joan Harrison
writer = Screenplay: Jonathan Latimer
Story: Gordon McDonell
starring = Susan Hayward
Robert Young
Jane Greer
music = Roy Webb
cinematography = Harry J. Wild
editing = Elmo Williams
distributor = RKO Radio Pictures
released = July 16, 1947 (U.S.A.)
runtime = 95 minutes
country = United States
language = English
amg_id = 1:49435
imdb_id = 0039896|

"They Won't Believe Me" is a 1947 drama film starring Susan Hayward. The black-and-white film noir was directed by Irving Pichel. The film was produced by Alfred Hitchcock's longtime assistant and collaborator, Joan Harrison. [imdb title|id=0039896|title=They Won't Believe Me.]

Plot

The film tells the story of a man's relationships with three women, leading to an ironic murder charge. As the film begins the accused man, Larry Ballentine (Young) stands trial for the killing of his lover (Hayward). He tells his story in flashback; revealing himself as a duplicitous husband whose marriage for money nonetheless overrules the substantial relationships he builds with other women.

When he seems finally to have made the break with a woman he loves (Hayward), a freak car accident leaves him alone but in a position to plot for his wife's money without the wife. If we are to take such a man at his word, he is innocent of murder but, in a final interview with his now reconciled first lover (Greer), finally confronting his worth. Back in court, and before the jury's verdict is delivered, Ballentine takes his life in his own hands.

Cast

* Susan Hayward as Verna Carlson
* Robert Young as Larry Ballentine
* Jane Greer as Janice Bell
* Rita Johnson as Greta Ballentine
* Tom Powers as Trenton
* George Tyne as Lieutenant Carr
* Don Beddoe as Thomason
* Frank Ferguson as Mr. Cahill, Defense Attorney
* Harry Harvey as Judge Charles Fletcher

Critical reaction

Dennis Schwartz, in a 2003 review of the film, called the film, "An outstanding film noir melodrama whose adultery tale is much in the same nature as a Hitchcock mystery or James M. Cain's gritty "Double Indemnity"." [ [http://www.sover.net/~ozus/theywontbelieveme.htm Schwartz, Dennis] . "Ozus' World Movie Reviews," film review, June 12, 2003. Last accessed: February 21, 2003.]

Ted Shen, reviewing the film for the "Chicago Reader," also compares the film to Cain's writing and praises the acting, and wrote, "Cast against type, Young manages to be both creepy and sympathetic. Actor-turned-director Irving Pichel gets hard-boiled performances from a solid cast." [ [http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/23282_THEY_WONT_BELIEVE_ME.html Shen, Ted] . "The Reader," film review, 2007.]

Critic Steve Press wrote, "The flashback structure of this suspenseful film noir effectively creates a foreboding tension that mounts to a powerful final scene." [Press, Steve. amg movie|id=1:49435|title=They Won't Believe Me.]

References

External links

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