Review of The Secret Fury

I rated this movie 6/10 mainly because apart from the good acting of Robert Ryan, Claudette Colbert was directed in an unconvincing way by Mel Ferrer.The most ludicrous scene she had was when she mentally breaks down in the witness box during the murder trial scene and she never convinced as a concert pianist as the director used the old trick of filming her from angles which did not disclose her hand positions.In films about famous pianists with Hollywood actors playing the musician, a good edit has a close up of a professional pianist's hands then cuts to a head and shoulders of the actor.The big fault in the screenplay was supposing every character could be bribed to agree to the same lie.Surely moral turpitude in America was not so base in 1950 especially after the big lie of Hitler 5 years before.The movie gained my attention for its duration and I was pleasantly surprised by the rather Agatha Cristie-like ending.It had its pros (exciting story that kept one guessing and cons (improbability) and this was my first viewing.I recently saw "Since You Went Away" (1944) when Claudette Colbert was better cast in her role as a mother of two daughters whose husband has been called up into the U.S. Army during WW11.