vincentlynch-moonoi
Maureen O'Hara herself pretty well summed up a proper review for this film: "I made no attempt to keep it a secret that I thought the story stank." Well, saying it "stank" might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.Usually we think about the affect that an actor has on a film. But here, it almost seems the opposite. This script was terrible for Maureen O'Hara. O'Hara was somewhat of a unique actress. She reminded me of fellow I knew who seemed to be able to comfortably wear almost any set of clothing. O'Hara could wear a comedy coat, a drama coat, even a fantasy coat. But this coat didn't fit O'Hara well at all.Melvyn Douglas comes off okay here because his flip attitude works here...and this was during the point in his career where Douglas was often flip.Gloria Grahame is a surprise here. I always thought it was a shame how see often played a sultry woman...the type of role that doesn't still come across very well. Well, here she doesn't play that role at all. What is weird is that a singer sings her songs while she lip syncs, and the singer they chose wasn't very good at all.Bill Williams is silly acting here. Dismissed! Victor Jory's role doesn't really work at all; it is too far out of his comfort zone.Mary Phillips and Jay C. Flippen are quite entertaining as a detective and his wife...an amateur sleuth herself...though I'm not sure that makes much sense.No, this film just doesn't work.
wes-connors
After preforming for a New York City radio station, popular singer Gloria Grahame (as Susan "Estrellita" Caldwell) goes back to the apartment she shares with roommate-manager Maureen O'Hara (as Marian Washburn) and threatens to give up her lucrative singing career. As we watch a maid perform her duties, a gunshot rings out – then, Ms. Grahame is found on the floor with Ms. O'Hara kneeling over her body. Through flashbacks, we learn what led up to the unfortunate opening. "A Woman's Secret" begins with intrigue, but falters as the flashbacks are confusing and the main characters become increasingly awkward. We are left to wonder why O'Hara "suddenly lost" her singing voice, due to a rare laryngitis, and how the voice is transferred to Grahame; moreover, O'Hara, both intelligent and uncommonly beautiful, decides to devote her life to the dim-witted perfume clerk from Azusa...The top-billed men involved with O'Hara and Grahame are pianist Melvyn Douglas (as Luke Jordan) and angry Bill Williams (Lee Crenshaw). They don't seem to know how to make sense of what is going on, which is understandable. Putting some life into the on-screen proceedings are police inspector Jay C. Flippen (as Fowler) and his wife Mary Philips (an amateur detective). Off-screen, director Nicholas Ray took Grahame over the threshold. While interesting in spots, Mr. Ray starts off the climactic O'Hara-Grahame confrontation with a fail – apparently, as evident in the scene where O'Hara walks in on Grahame burning a "Western Union" telegram, O'Hara lost her sense of smell along with her singing voice. She should have asked, "What did you burn, Susan?" Adding to the confusion, the beginning flashbacks don't match later events – maybe this was intended to make it all more interesting.**** A Woman's Secret (3/5/49) Nicholas Ray ~ Maureen O'Hara, Gloria Grahame, Melvyn Douglas, Bill Williams
JohnHowardReid
Ex-singer Washburn confesses to shooting current singer, "Estrellita". Of course we know that Washburn didn't do it because she's played by Maureen O'Hara (who only once enacted a heavy in her entire screen career and did it most unconvincingly at that!). So why did she confess to something she didn't do? That's pretty obvious too! Understandably, because of its no-interest plot, A Woman's Secret has a poor reputation even among Ray's most ardent admirers. What these people don't seem to notice is the ingenious way writer Herman Mankiewicz again uses the complicated flashback technique he pioneered in Citizen Kane and the clever way he introduces a host of attention-gathering support characters headed by Victor Jory, Mary Philips and Jay C. Flippen, and even including people like Robert Warwick and Virginia Farmer. Of course, the obnoxious Bill Williams is there too, but he plays an obnoxious character, so that's all right!Production values and technical credits are equally adept. The movie has all the noir gloss we expect of RKO.What the film also has is Gloria Grahame. It's no surprise that director Ray and actress Grahame got married as soon as shooting was completed because if ever a camera was in love with an actress that camera is the one used to photograph entrancing close-up after close-up of Miss Gloria in A Woman's Secret. Not only does she look great here, but she exhibits the sort of power and intensity that was soon to win her an award for Best Supporting Actress in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).
writers_reign
By coincidence this is the second movie written by Mank's big brother Herman that I've watched in two days - courtesy of my good friend in France - and it's light years ahead of the first, Christmas Holiday and in yet another coincidence both movies were adapted by Mank from novels by heavy hitters, respectively Somerset Maugham and Vicki Baum. For this entry someone should coin a new term; slightly bizarre noir, which is what it is. At first glance we seem to be verging on Mildred Pierce territory inasmuch as an argument is followed by a gunshot and a confession which has to be as phony as a nine-dollar bill. On paper this is a film of about as mismatched talents as you could get, on paper at least. Who would ever associate Maureen O'Hara with Nicholas Ray? or cast her as Myrna Loy to Melvyn Douglas' William Powell? And, if it comes to that, who could envisage Jay C. Flippen and Victor Jory in the same film let alone a film that already has O'Hara and Douglas aboard, to say nothing of Gloria Graham who plays Estrellita as if she'd been told to effect a cross between Gracie Allen and Marilyn Monoro - although Monroe had yet to establish her persona in 1949 despite three or four small roles. Mank's script is pithy and droll, full of collectables such as 'What are you doing for dinner?' 'Eating', and, 'I just won another bet, they don't say "Where Am I?"'. If you believe Melvyn Douglas as a piano player-song-plugger you'll believe anything, even that Gloria Graham can carry a tune in a Louis Vuitton purse (she was dubbed, natch) but this time around it's fairly easy to suspend disbelief (since when, for example, have cops wives been allowed to sit in on investigations) and along the way we get to hear the elusive verse to 'Paradise' so really what more do you want.
AD
