Joan Fontaine is riveting here and is more like a poison Ivy.
When she meets wealthy Herbert Marshall, she seems to forget about husband Richard Ney and her lover-doctor, Patric Knowles, who is willing to die for her as the film goes on.
Ivy decides to eliminate Ney. Just as in Mrs. Miniver, Ney's leading lady appears to be too old for him. Fontaine looks like his mother in their scenes together, but with Ney quickly out of the way, you forget that. Remember that in real life at the time of Mrs. Miniver, Ney married Greer Garson, who was his mother-in-law in that great Oscar-winning film.
Circumstances seem to fall into Ivy's favor when the doctor is accused of killing Ney. The film does a splendid job of creating this with Ivy and Knowles giving conflicting stories, and the promise that housekeeper Sara Allgood had made to Knowles.
Lucille Watson is wonderful as Knowles's mother and Cedric Hardwicke, as the police official, steals the scenes he is in with his suspicion of Ivy as the real killer.
To say that Ivy went out with a bang at the end of the film is to put it mildly. It's the old story of getting what you deserve.
When she meets wealthy Herbert Marshall, she seems to forget about husband Richard Ney and her lover-doctor, Patric Knowles, who is willing to die for her as the film goes on.
Ivy decides to eliminate Ney. Just as in Mrs. Miniver, Ney's leading lady appears to be too old for him. Fontaine looks like his mother in their scenes together, but with Ney quickly out of the way, you forget that. Remember that in real life at the time of Mrs. Miniver, Ney married Greer Garson, who was his mother-in-law in that great Oscar-winning film.
Circumstances seem to fall into Ivy's favor when the doctor is accused of killing Ney. The film does a splendid job of creating this with Ivy and Knowles giving conflicting stories, and the promise that housekeeper Sara Allgood had made to Knowles.
Lucille Watson is wonderful as Knowles's mother and Cedric Hardwicke, as the police official, steals the scenes he is in with his suspicion of Ivy as the real killer.
To say that Ivy went out with a bang at the end of the film is to put it mildly. It's the old story of getting what you deserve.