spotted-owl Ivy (1947) is an excellent "gaslight noir" film, with elements of Hitchcock and Victorian Gothic. Joan Fontaine is superb as the beautiful villainess Ivy. The film is visually stunning, with a suspenseful storyline. This rare gem deserves more recognition. Ivy is a beautiful blonde woman with a soft voice and elegant manners. She wears gorgeous Edwardian fashions, and extravagant hats with veils. However, beneath the alluring exterior is a cold hearted woman who is obsessed with having beautiful things, such as gowns, jewelry and opulent apartments. She is ruthless in her pursuit of beautiful items, to the point of murder. Ivy spent all her husband's money, and her lover is a doctor who cares for the poor. Neither man can give Ivy the beautiful things she craves.When Ivy meets the much older multimillionaire Miles Rushworth, she plots to scheme her way into his heart.There is a dramatic scene on Rushworth's yacht where Ivy tries to seduce him. Ivy appears in the doorway, looking gorgeous in a low-cut evening gown. Rushworth is tempted, but tells her that he does not become involved with married women.When Ivy's husband refuses to divorce her, she resorts to poisoning him, and then frames her lover for the murder. Suspense builds as the police try to determine who murdered Ivy's husband.Ivy hides her poison in a black purse with a strange clasp in the shape of a woman's face. The female face clasp is symbolic, as poison was a woman's weapon in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, because it was secretive and nonconfrontational. This is a "gaslight noir" film, set in Edwardian England, but with 1940s noir light and shadow, including the iconic noir slatted shadows. The movie has some Hitchcockian elements, such as a cool blonde, a man wrongfully accused, mirrors, and a build up of suspense.Victorian Gothic elements include the spooky clairvoyant woman, and her assistant who plays an eerie tune on the piano. The eerie music recurs throughout the film, and adds to the atmosphere. Legendary art director and producer William Cameron Menzies gave the film stunning visuals and atmosphere. The sets are lavish. Ivy's costumes are gorgeous confections of lace, chiffon and glitter. This film has a suspenseful storyline, excellent performances, lavish sets and costumes, great atmosphere, dramatic noir lighting, and a beautiful villainess. Hopefully a DVD will be released soon.

Spikeopath Ivy is directed by Sam Wood and adapted to screenplay by Charles Bennett from the novel The Story of Ivy written by Marie Belloc Lowndes. It stars Joan Fontaine, Patric Knowles, Herbert Marshall, Richard Ney, Cedric Hardwicke and Lucile Watson. Music is by Daniele Amfitheatrof and cinematography by Russell Metty.Ivy Lexton (Fontaine) has a hunger to be wealthy, and setting her sights on well-to-do Miles Rushworth ( Marshall), Ivy plots a fiendish plan that spells trouble for her husband Jervis (Ney) and her lover Roger (Knowles).Well worth discovering, Ivy showcases the dark side of Fontaine's acting prowess for great entertainment rewards. The beautiful Madame Fontaine actually disowned the movie, and this after she stepped in to the role of Ivy Lexton after her sister Olivia de Havilland turned it down. Her lack of affection for the picture goes some way to explaining why it has remained largely forgotten, which is a shame because it's a high end gaslight noir propelled by a femme fatale of some considerable substance.The budget was high, and it shows, in the cast list, the costuming and the stunning turn of the century production design by William Cameron Menzies. Metty's low-key photography cloaks the Edwardian settings with atmospheric snugness, while Amfitheatrof underscores the drama with music that is appropriately tinged with chills. Thematically the piece is focusing on obsessions, by way of man's ignorant lust and woman's pursuit of wealth above all else. All characters are defined not by fate here, but by their actions, making for a hornet's nest of murder and adultery.1947 was a stellar year for film noir, with big hitting movies like Out of the Past, Nightmare Alley, Kiss of Death, Odd Man Out and Brighton Rock further cementing the growing popularity of noir as a style of film making. As is often the case with the great noir years from the classic cycle, there's still little gems hidden away waiting to be brought out into the open, Ivy is one such film. Fontaine and the sumptuous noir visual style ensure this to be the case. 8/10

highwaytourist This is one atmospheric and visually dazzling film. The ornate sets capture the mood to perfection, even if they aren't completely accurate. Kudos to the art director. Whoever designed Joan Fontaine's wardrobe also helped the mood, even if they were not historically accurate. Also praiseworthy is the cinematography, which is in stark black-and-white and makes perfect use of light and shadow. Indeed, the film's look in some ways reminds me of the later work of Josef Von Sternberg, while some of the night scenes are like a refined version of German Expressionism. If they had been supported by a great story, this could have been a classic. What they did use was a passable romantic drama which was only mildly interesting. Here, Joan Fontaine plays a Victorian Femme Fatale whose dullard husband doesn't make enough money to keep up with her spendthrift ways. She also has a lover on the side, a doctor whose possessiveness threatens to expose their affair to her husband. She thinks she's found the lavish life she wants when she meets a wealthy bachelor at a sporting event. She convinces him to hire her unemployed husband in the London office and then designs to seduce him. However, he can't bring himself to have an affair with a married woman. What's an unhappily married gold digger to do? Well, she turns Femme Fatale and schemes to get her husband and lover both out of the way, lying and manipulating in the style made familiar by Barbara Stanwick in "Double Indemnity." Interestingly, Joan Fontaine plays her as a mild, seemingly harmless woman, a performance she repeated in "Born To Be Bad" a few years later. Problem is that there are many slow parts and the interest lags, thanks to the talky script. Also hurting is the noisy musical score, which distracts from the mood and suspense. However, it's worthwhile for fans of older movies. I usually enjoyed it.

robert-temple-1 Joan Fontaine here is entirely convincing as an amoral beauty who is entirely incapable of feeling love for anyone but herself. Her husband (Richard Ney) has lost all his money through a combination of his foolhardiness and her extravagance, and they are reduced to living in a tiny room, with little or no prospects. They continue to put on the most amazing clothes and go out and socialize as if nothing were wrong. He is a charming, feckless, but wholly amiable fellow. However, Fontaine decides he has to go, as he has outlived his usefulness. So she resolves to poison him when she realizes he does not want to divorce her, so that she can move on. She has meanwhile had a lover (Patric Knowles) whom she decides to drop because he is not rich either. She meets the aging Herbert Marshall, who has a yacht with all the trimmings and more money than even Fontaine could figure out how to spend. She targets him and decides he will do nicely. He is all too eager to be eaten up by the young beauty. He certainly isn't very exciting, and has about as much sex appeal as yesterday's omelette. But Fontaine is one of those gals who has eyes only for money, and the man standing between her and it is transparent, so that she doesn't even notice or care what he looks like, she looks through him and sees what she really wants and goes for it. She proceeds to poison her husband, and dispatches him very neatly and satisfactorily, so that everything is going well. But as always happens in the movies, and sometimes even in life, some unexpected things begin to go wrong, and the tension rises appreciably, so that Fontaine begins to sweat. Fontaine is particularly good at looking wicked and terrified, and as the net begins to close in on her, her rising sense of desperation is palpable and has us on the edges of our seats. Hysteria and fear take over from cool calculation and cunning. But she finds a fall guy for her crime in the person of her cast off lover, who is an innocent victim of her scheme to set him up. He is condemned to death for murder, because the husband's death by poison came to light unexpectedly. But Sir Cedric Hardwicke, playing a grimly determined Scotland yard inspector, thinks there may be something amiss, and begins to doubt the story and suspect Fontaine. He closes in on her, and some of the scenes as this happens are inspired portrayals of the wildest panic. But will the innocent man's life be saved before he is executed? Will Fontaine worm her way out of this one? Will Herbert Marshall protect her to safeguard his infatuation? This film is expertly directed by Sam Wood, and the film is a really superb suspense thriller which I suppose qualifies very well for the description of a superior film noir.