Bette Davis plays a famous mystery writer, Janet Frobisher. Her next door neighbor happens to be the local vet who gives her a lift home on a dark auspicious night. She claims her phone lines were down and she walked all the way the abandoned train station to use the phone there for "business". The good vet gives her a ride home talking about the difficulty of figuring out the plots of the thrillers she has turned him on to.
When she arrives home she is set upon by a stranger. A stranger who apparently was in on a bank job gone wrong with her husband. She had left her husband three years ago, he was a blackmailer and all around nasty guy. This stranger was supposed to meet up with him there....only...
"I decided that was the last time he'd ever hit me. I brought him his drink and I put something in it."-Janet.
Her plan was to weight his body down with stones into the deep lake behind the stables.
Since no one has seen the husband the stranger decides that he can pretend to be her husband! This is how he becomes "George Preston", her real, not pen name.
"It's wonderful what new clothes do to you!"-George Bates
Then her secretary, Chris, shows up with her fiancé Larry...who has been lover to both Chris and Janet! This really throws a wrench into things, now that Janet's "husband" is back.
"Mrs. Preston, from now on I'm giving the orders in this house."-Janet
This was a great film noir. Two people who need each other but don't like one another...with a sneaky lover and secretary all under the roof of one large country home. Bette Davis' Janet is no weeping willow!
When she arrives home she is set upon by a stranger. A stranger who apparently was in on a bank job gone wrong with her husband. She had left her husband three years ago, he was a blackmailer and all around nasty guy. This stranger was supposed to meet up with him there....only...
"I decided that was the last time he'd ever hit me. I brought him his drink and I put something in it."-Janet.
Her plan was to weight his body down with stones into the deep lake behind the stables.
Since no one has seen the husband the stranger decides that he can pretend to be her husband! This is how he becomes "George Preston", her real, not pen name.
"It's wonderful what new clothes do to you!"-George Bates
Then her secretary, Chris, shows up with her fiancé Larry...who has been lover to both Chris and Janet! This really throws a wrench into things, now that Janet's "husband" is back.
"Mrs. Preston, from now on I'm giving the orders in this house."-Janet
This was a great film noir. Two people who need each other but don't like one another...with a sneaky lover and secretary all under the roof of one large country home. Bette Davis' Janet is no weeping willow!