THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME (1947)

First of all, toss out any mental images you have of Robert Young as that nice old doctor or the father who always knows best, in THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME, he plays a grade-A heel.

As the film opens we see Larry Ballantine in a courtroom, on trial for murder. As he takes the stand, he tells how he got there, and the flashback begins...

Larry is a man who seems to have everything, a rich wife, Greta, (Rita Johnson) and a beautiful girlfriend, Janice (Jane Greer), who he meets every Saturday afternoon. Today, Janice tells Larry she's breaking up with him; her company offered her a transfer to Montreal, and she's going. Larry goes home to pack and meet Janice at the station. But Greta tells him she knows about the Saturday trysts and offers him another choice — she's bought a home in Los Angeles for them and half ownership of a brokerage firm for him. He jumps at the chance.

After a few weeks in LA, Larry begins an affair with Verna, a colleague at work, and a self-confessed golddigger. As he begins to arrive home later and later each night, Greta realizes Larry hasn't changed. and tipped off by Larry's partner in the brokerage, she confronts her husband about Verna.

Did I mention that this film has more twists and turns than the Pacific Coast Highway?

Anyway, Greta has bought a ranch in the country and tells Larry she's going there, with or without him. And, BTW, she's sold his stake in the brokerage and he no longer has a job. Larry goes to the ranch.

A while goes by and Larry looks for an excuse to drive into LA to see if he can hook up with Verna. He does, and they plan to withdraw $25,000 from the Ballantines' joint checking account and run off to Reno. Driving through the hills everything seems to be going well for the couple, when a truck swerves into the lane and their car goes over a cliff. Larry is thrown from the wreck, but Verna is trapped in the burning car.

Larry wakes up in the hospital and begins to realize that the authorities believe the woman in the car with him was his wife (the only thing left of the charred body is the dime-store wedding ring that Verna bought for their trip).

Then Larry gets a diabolical idea. Since everyone thinks his wife is dead, and Greta is all alone in the country...

The moment he's released, he drives up to the ranch and looks around for his wife. He finds her body at the bottom of a ravine where she had tripped and fallen down the steep slope. She's already dead. And then things really start to get interesting.

Tightly directed by Irving Pichel (THE MIRACLE OF THE BELLS, MR. PEABODY & THE MERMAID); even with the quickly shifting story, the viewer never feels lost. Producer Joan Harrison is best known as the producer of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and as screenwriter of REBECCA, SUSPICION, and other Hitchcock classics.

The ending of this film may be the most noirish ending ever, even beating out Otto Preminger's infamous ANGEL FACE. You will be surprised, I guarantee.

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The House of Portfolios

We've all heard of a house of cards, the 3 Little Pigs had their house of straw, and there is The House of the Rising Sun that's been the ruin of many a young boy — but NYC has The House of Portfolios.


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THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946)

When Johnny Morrison returns home from the war with his two buddies, he finds his wife has taken up with another man and a fast crowd. There's a quarrel and Johnny walks out. All this is being observed by "Dad" Newell, the apartment complex's house detective. A short while later, he finds Helen Morrison murdered and Johnny is the prime suspect. Meanwhile, in a coincidence that happens often in noir, Johnny meets the estranged wife of Eddie Harwood, the "other man" and owner of The Blue Dahlia nightclub and goes on the run.

I don't understand the appeal of Alan Ladd. For me, he's the weakest element of this very strong movie. On the other hand, we have incredible film noir stalwarts everywhere you look. Veronica Lake as Joyce Harwood, the criminally underrated William Bendix as Morrison's tightly wound buddy Buzz, Howard Da Silva as Eddie, Hugh Beaumont (yes, he did have a film career before he was Beaver's dad) as Morrison's other buddy, with smaller roles to Anthony Caruso and Frank Faylen.

And the script — WOW — written by Raymond Chandler. What a joy it must've been to be able to say those lines! Chandler received a Best Screenplay Oscar for THE BLUE DAHLIA in 1947.