Simply A Masterpiece

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Robert Young plays a real heel. One of his conquests is killed and he is blamed. The film does not follow a formula. The ending is a shocker.

This movie starts at the end as Larry Ballantyne tells an unbelievable tale on the witness stand as he is on trial for murder. And Larry, confidentially, I wouldn't believe you either. So most of the movie you are waiting to find out who he is accused of murdering, and whether or not this is just one more of his lies.So we flashback to when Larry is designing a boat...in a restaurant..in a corner...in a booth..in the dark...with Janice (Jane Greer). They confess their feelings about one another and she says she is leaving on assignment for her work to Montreal. Larry agrees to tell his wife he wants a divorce and he is coming with her. He tells Janice his marriage has actually been over for a long time. But wifey is waiting at home. Greta (the wife) knows everything. Larry is not good at covering his tracks. She even offers to help Larry pack...OR he can move to San Francisco where he can have things his way for a change, own part of a stock brokering business, and live in his kind of house. You see, what is holding Larry to Greta is her money. There is such a lack of passion here on either side - hatred or love - you wonder if it was always a business deal. You wonder if he knew he was being bought and she knew she was trading money for companionship.At any rate, Larry trots off to San Francisco with Greta. He never contacts Janice and says he is not coming. In fact, Janice who? But then, out on the west coast, the same thing starts all over again. Except this time it is not a classy fur clad female like Janice. Instead it is flirty bouncy forward Verna (Susan Hayward). This time Greta is a bit insulted. She looked at Janice as a younger well dressed equally classy version of herself. Larry's tryst with Verna is an insult since Greta considers her common, one step from the streets.So this time Larry is put in isolation. Literally. Greta buys a ranch house for them in the middle of nowhere. There is no phone. You have to drive miles to the country store to make any kind of phone call and then it has all the privacy of making a call in Mr. Drucker's store in Hooterville, and Greta likes it that way.But then...a chance for escape. Larry has an excuse to go to the city to see an architect about a guest house Greta wants to build and he uses it as an opportunity to see Verna. At the same time, fate lands a huge misunderstanding in his lap that could be a gift, and he outsmarts himself. I'll let you watch the rest and find out what happens.Just know that Janice also resurfaces, not too happy about being stood up and abandoned for that matter. This is a great noir full of interesting characters and blank pages where you have to guess what happened. This was one of Robert Young's most interesting roles, and he is quite good as the guy who loves money and easy living more than he could ever love any woman.This is one of my favorite noirs, yet it has never made any of the WB Film Noir DVD packs nor even the Warner Archive. Maybe the idea of Robert Young in a film noir is just too weird to sell. Catch it if you can, you won't regret it.

At the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles, a murder trial is underway; Lawrence Ballentyne (Robert Young) takes the stand. He is charged with the brutal murder of a woman. A flashback, which covers most of the movie, tells a story that begins on a hot summer day in New York. Although Ballentyne is married to Greta (Rita Johnson), he has a mistress, Janice Bell (Jane Greer). Ballentyne was ready to leave his rich and influential wife and relocate to Montreal with Janice, but wife Greta knew of his plans and sabotaged them by convincing him to move to California with her. Greta's enticement was to buy her husband a limited partnership in a brokerage firm. Ballentyne promptly dumped Janice. Everything was fine for six months, until he spotted an office employee, Verna Carlson (Susan Hayward). He says, "She looked like a very special kind of dynamite, neatly wrapped in nylon and silk . . . I was powder shy." Before long though, the conniving Verna bails out Ballentyne, who was in a jam with his boss, Mr. Trenton (Tom Powers). After that Ballentyne is into a relationship with her. Events happen, like Ballentyne accidentally bumping into Greer at a restaurant (Hmmm).Eventually Ballentyne decides to go away with Verna to Reno, but his car is struck by an out-of-control heavy truck. Verna is promptly killed and her body burned beyond recognition, while Ballentyne ends up in a hospital. The investigating police believe it was his wife Greta who died in the accident. Ballentyne goes along with the story and soon recovers. After a few events pass, wife Greta commits suicide at a canyon near her ranch. Ballentyne finds her body and the note that he wrote to her in which he explained that he was leaving her for Verna. Although he left her body to decompose, the police eventually discover it. But they soon wonder about Verna. When Ballentyne travels to Kingston, Jamaica, he again unexpectedly runs into Janice Bell. Back in LA, he says he feels like the "bait." He should be uneasy, as Janice is setting him up for the police, who are convinced he murdered Verna. They believe in a motive: Verna must have been blackmailing him. The flashback over, we return to the courtroom trial and Ballentyne's dilemma. The ending is a real grabber, and the last two words provide a twist to this noirish thriller. The acting is fine all around, although the four lead characters are not particularly likable. Top-billed Robert Young is especially good even though he is cast against type; he does not overplay his role as a charming womanizer. After his movie career, he successfully moved into television and among other performances, had two terrific series with "Father Knows Best" (1954-1960) and "Marcus Welby, M.D." (1969-1976). Susan Hayward appeared in many movies, especially in the 1940s and 1950s. After receiving several Oscar nominations for Best Actress, she finally won the award for "I Want to Live" (1958). Jane Greer was the classic femme fatale in "Out of the Past" (1947). Anthony Caruso, a character actor who racked up over 250 movie and TV credits, has a brief role as a hardened hospital patient.

They Won't Believe Me is directed by Irving Pichel and adapted to screenplay by Jonathan Latimer from a story by Gordon McDonell. It stars Robert Young, Susan Hayward, Jane Greer and Rita Johnson. Music is by Roy Webb and cinematography by Harry J. Wild.Larry Ballentine (Young) is on trial for murder and he tells his story in flashback. Three dames and fate does not a good mix make."She looked like a very special kind of dynamite, neatly wrapped in nylon and silk. Only I wasn't having any. I'd been too close to one explosion already. I was powder shy".A splendid slice of noir drama is put together by a group of film makers who knew how to make the noir style of film making work. The story has all the requisite ingredients to lure the interested viewers in, twists and turns, vipers and snipers, dialogue so sharp you could cut a steak with it, and a love rat protagonist (Young splendid in a break from his normal roles) being toyed with by Old Noir Nick and his friend The Fate.In true noir tradition the plot is a little "out there", the middle section drags at times, while Harry Wild's cinematography doesn't kick in till a good hour into the play (worth the wait though!). But this is a little noir treasure waiting to be seen by more people. It's not unknown, the cast list ensures that is not the case, but in film noir circles it doesn't often crop up for discussion. It should, for it's tricky and devilish and pays off with a finale straight out of noirville. 8/10