They Won't Believe Me
They Won't Believe Me is a
1947 drama film starring
Susan Hayward. The
black-and-white film noir was directed by
Irving Pichel. The film was produced by
Alfred Hitchcock's longtime assistant and collaborator,
Joan Harrison.
The film tells the story of a man's relationships with three women, leading to an ironic murder charge. As the film begins the accused man, Larry Ballentine (Young) stands trial for the killing of his wife (Johnson). He tells his story in flashback; revealing himself as a duplicitous husband whose marriage for money nonetheless overules the substantial relationships he builds with other women. When he seems finally to have made the break with a woman he loves (Hayward), a freak car accident leaves him alone but in a position to plot for his wife's money without the wife. If we are to take such a man at his word, he is innocent of murder but, in a final interview with his now reconciled first lover (Greer), finally confronting his worth. Back in court, and before the jury's verdict is delivered, Ballentine takes his life in his own hands.
A 2003 review of the film by
Dennis Schwartz called the film "An outstanding film noir melodrama whose adultery tale is much in the same nature as a Hitchcock mystery or
James M. Cain's gritty
Double Indemnity." Ted Shen reviewing the film for the
Chicago Reader also compares the film to Cain's writing and also praises the film's actors: "Cast against type, Young manages to be both creepy and sympathetic. Actor-turned-director Irving Pichel gets hard-boiled performances from a solid cast."
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Susan Hayward as Verna Carlson
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Robert Young as Larry Ballentine
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Jane Greer as Janice Bell
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Rita Johnson as Greta Ballentine
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Tom Powers as Trenton
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Ozus movie review
