Alex da Silva Artist Humphrey Bogart (Geoffrey) and Barbara Stanwyck (Sally) are in love but there is a big obstacle in the way in the form of Bogart's wife. So, the solution is to remove the obstacle and paint her portrait while he's in the mindset. We get the same situation when stuck-up socialite Alexis Smith (Cecily) enters the scene, only this time it's Babsy Stanwyck who's in danger and getting the portrait treatment. Can Bogey carry through his plan? The story is fine but the acting and characters are a bit weak so I have to mark the film down for this. Bogart isn't really artist material and pulls out a comedy ending. Stanwyck's character is a bit of a wet fish and will have you shaking your head in annoyance at the film's end scene when she gets the upper hand on Bogey. Aha, finally we get the strong Stanwyck personality we have been waiting for. But, hold on…….what on earth is she doing? Doh!! Nigel Bruce turns up as a doctor and just plays his usual bumbling oaf comedy character – also annoying. And I just have no idea what Bogey's daughter Ann Carter (Bea) is doing. Anybody know? She is either some sort of evil genius child or just completely terrible and unrealistic in everything she says. I have no idea which it is. Alexis Smith (Cecily) who plays the 'other woman' and housemaid Anita Sharp-Bolster (Christine) are the best in the cast.The film isn't bad, there are a few good scenes, and there is a frightening moment a la "Picture of Dorian Grey". The music gets seriously cranked up for melodrama so you know what emotions you are meant to be feeling.

seymourblack-1 Probably because of its similarity to Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion" (1941) and George Cukor's "Gaslight" (1944), this Gothic noir was given a rough ride by the critics and didn't do very well commercially. Its story of murder, adultery and blackmail was based on Martin Vale's successful stage play of the same name, and like the two aforementioned movies, features a "woman in danger". It's significant for being the only film in which Humphrey Bogart and Barbara Stanwyck starred together and is also interesting to watch because both stars play roles that are quite different from those for which they are best known.During a two-week stay in Scotland, an artist and an heiress meet and fall in love. A problem arises when Sally Morton (Barbara Stanwyck) finds a letter addressed to the wife of her new beau and to her surprise, Geoffrey Carroll (Humphrey Bogart) readily admits that he has an invalid wife and a young daughter. After this revelation, Sally decides, without hesitation, to end their relationship. Geoffrey (posing as Mr Fleming), then purchases some poison from a London pharmacist called Horace Blagdon (Barry Bernard) and sends his daughter Bea (Ann Carter) away to school, so that he can concentrate on caring for his wife whose portrait he has painted as the "Angel of Death".Two years after their first meeting and following the death of the artist's wife, Geoffrey and Sally are happily married and living together with Bea, in the cathedral town called Ashton. During this period, Geoffrey doesn't have the type of inspiration that he needs to produce his best work and so, when Sally's ex-fiancé Charles "Penny" Pennington (Patrick O'Moore) and two of his American acquaintances, the wealthy Mrs Latham (Isobel Elsom) and her attractive daughter Cecily (Alexis Smith) call by, Geoffrey is rather irritable. His mood doesn't improve when Cecily says how impressed she was by his recent one-man show in London and asks if he would paint her portrait. He immediately refuses but later changes his mind because Blagdon has discovered his real identity and has started to blackmail him.When they work together on the new portrait, Cecily and Geoffrey fall in love and the beginning of their affair marks the point at which Sally's health suddenly deteriorates. She becomes weak and bedridden with a complaint that the local doctor diagnoses as an attack of nerves. Sally, however, begins to fear for her life when she learns that her symptoms mirror those suffered by the first Mrs Carroll shortly before her death and also discovers a painting (which Geoffrey had kept hidden from her) of herself as the "Angel of Death". As Sally becomes ever-more suspicious of the contents of the nightly glasses of milk that Geoffrey brings her, Cecily starts to demand that her lover should run away with her to South America and Blagdon's blackmail demands become greater. The pressure of all this on Geoffrey then becomes intolerable and provokes him into the irrational actions that follow.One of this movie's greatest assets is its collection of colourful characters. The maid who works in the Carrolls' residence is incredibly impertinent, ill-mannered and full of snide remarks, the doctor who attends to Sally is a bumbling alcoholic who's clearly incompetent and Penny keeps hanging around because he's still obsessed with Sally. Geoffrey's daughter Bea is about 10-years-old, very prim and proper and exceptionally precocious and because of this, some of her comments take on an extra edge. Examples of this are when she says to her father "I know you'll do whatever is best for mother" and when talking to Penny about the portrait of her mother as the "Angel of Death", she remarks (with a dead-pan expression) that "father says it's representational".The movie's real showstopper however, is Cecily whose conduct is incredibly inappropriate at times and outrageously funny. She's a shameless schemer who's determined to seduce Geoffrey and after he initially refuses to paint her portrait, Sally says that "people must suggest ideas to him before he paints them". Cecily turns to Geoffrey and says "Oh, and don't I suggest an idea to you?" to which he replies "yes, but nothing I'd care to paint".Bogart, Stanwyck and the rest of the cast all turn in great performances, the cinematography is especially good and the atmosphere becomes decidedly creepy at times. There's more humour than is normally found in this type of movie and overall, it's entertaining and really worth watching.

Alex Deleon Viewed at 2013 Los Angeles Film Noir festival image1.jpeg The Two Mrs. Carrolls" (1947) features a most improbable Humphrey Bogart as a talented but mentally disturbed painter (if you can buy that -- who makes a practice of painting portraits of his wives, as the Angel of Death and then knocking them off — in England, no less. With Bogie delivering his lines in unadulterated "Casablancanese", even in this genteel English environment, it looks like he's playing in a different flick than the rest of the cast, but who cares, when the lady he wants to murder is Barabara Stanwyck, as the surviving Mrs. Carroll!Far from a classic, but one for the books as perhaps the least known of all Bogart flicks – and rightfully so. You'll never see it on TCM, but Humphrey does chew up the scenery when he starts freaking out…(No one ever pulled one over on J. C. Dobbs). One of the extra delights of this film is the alluring A-list actress Alexis Smith, who tends to steal the show in the scenes where she appears and openly puts the make on Bogie in front of her high society mother and flustered wife Stanwyck. This one will make you loosen your critical straightjacket if you have it on. Redefines the classification "camp classic".

wes-connors Vacationing in rainy Scotland, marriage-minded Barbara Stanwyck (as Sally Morton) enjoys her passionate two-week affair with painter Humphrey Bogart (as Geoffrey Carroll). When she accidentally discovers Mr. Bogart is a married man, Ms. Stanwyck is beside herself. Bogart claims his wife is an invalid, but Stanwyck ends the relationship. Back in London, Bogart sends cute blonde daughter Ann Carter (as Beatrice "Bea" Carroll) away to school and presides over his wife's untimely expiration...Two years later, the widower Bogart has married Stanwyck. She is happy. But, Bogart is grumpy because he has trouble painting. His mood improves when beautiful Alexis Smith (as Cecily Latham) enters the picture. Though Stanwyck and Bogart proved capable in distressed damsel and disturbed psycho roles, they seem to smart for the roles herein. Helping most are precocious young Carter (who is also much to intelligent for the script) and Nigel Bruce as an inept doctor with a fondness for alcohol.******* The Two Mrs. Carrolls (3/4/47) Peter Godfrey ~ Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Carter, Alexis Smith