(1950) The Secret Fury
MYSTERY THRILLER/ PSYCHOLOGICAL
It has architect, David McLean (Robert Ryan) just arriving to his fiance's wedding, a renown piano player, Ellen Ewing (Claudette Colbert). All is well, until a man stands up to claim that Ellen has already been married before when she went on a trip to Fairview to a guy name Lucien Randall (Dave Barbour). She claims he is lying, both Ellen and David then go along with some close relatives and friends to find out whether it's made up or not. Which their first stop was to Fairview to see the document before seeing Justice of the Peace, and were surprised to see that the marriage document was on her handwriting. And upon confronting Lucien Randall, the man who claims is the actual husband of Ellen Ewing. As a result of her agreeing to be in the same room as her, it then appears that she has shot him dead. Forcing her to stand trial with family lawyer,Gregory Kent (Philip Ober) to represent her. The term "Secret Fury" as the movie is called is in reference to a description to person's mental state of "past aggression's of unconscious" which was part of a description about Ellen, once she became hysterical and was then put in a institution.
After watching this movie again after many years, I thought I had remembered who the main culprit was who was like behind all of this, and i was still wrong about it. As the culprit is not obvious, but as a result of watching it again I also got to see some of the inconsistencies, such as how come police are not involved who can prove Ellen did not shoot and kill her alleged so-called husband, Lucien Randall? And normally, when you have a lawyer hired to defend someone, usually that defense lawyer would have someone go and cross examine or return to ask questions to those very accusers, as opposed to the architect fiance, David McLean! And as soon as we finally do see the person who was behind all of this , it made even less sense. You just might say it is a cross between "Spellbound" and "Gaslight".
It has architect, David McLean (Robert Ryan) just arriving to his fiance's wedding, a renown piano player, Ellen Ewing (Claudette Colbert). All is well, until a man stands up to claim that Ellen has already been married before when she went on a trip to Fairview to a guy name Lucien Randall (Dave Barbour). She claims he is lying, both Ellen and David then go along with some close relatives and friends to find out whether it's made up or not. Which their first stop was to Fairview to see the document before seeing Justice of the Peace, and were surprised to see that the marriage document was on her handwriting. And upon confronting Lucien Randall, the man who claims is the actual husband of Ellen Ewing. As a result of her agreeing to be in the same room as her, it then appears that she has shot him dead. Forcing her to stand trial with family lawyer,Gregory Kent (Philip Ober) to represent her. The term "Secret Fury" as the movie is called is in reference to a description to person's mental state of "past aggression's of unconscious" which was part of a description about Ellen, once she became hysterical and was then put in a institution.
After watching this movie again after many years, I thought I had remembered who the main culprit was who was like behind all of this, and i was still wrong about it. As the culprit is not obvious, but as a result of watching it again I also got to see some of the inconsistencies, such as how come police are not involved who can prove Ellen did not shoot and kill her alleged so-called husband, Lucien Randall? And normally, when you have a lawyer hired to defend someone, usually that defense lawyer would have someone go and cross examine or return to ask questions to those very accusers, as opposed to the architect fiance, David McLean! And as soon as we finally do see the person who was behind all of this , it made even less sense. You just might say it is a cross between "Spellbound" and "Gaslight".