1941-1950 Crime Curtis Bernhardt Film Noir USA

Curtis Bernhardt – Conflict (1945)

adminSeptember 28, 2019

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Bogart is Richard Mason, successful engineer, just celebrating five years of marriage to Kathryn (Rose Hobart). Underneath the veneer of this idyllic marriage, however, the Masons’ relationship has degenerated into deep bitterness. Richard is in love with his wife’s younger sister, Evelyn (Alexis Smith), but knows that Kathryn will never grant him his freedom.
When he suffers a broken leg in a car accident, Richard sees a chance to escape his situation: Arranging a vacation at a mountain resort, he persuades his wife to make the long drive alone. That night, Richard intercepts Kathryn on the deserted mountain road and kills her, returning home before he’s missed, and maintaining the pretence that he’s still immobile from his broken leg, by way of an alibi.

As the police search for his apparently missing wife, Richard is free to develop his relationship with Evelyn, but odd things soon start to happen: Richard smells his wife’s perfume at home; he receives mail apparently written by her, and then thinks he sees her walk by on the street. He begins to ask himself, is Kathryn still alive – or is something else sinister afoot? With the help of psychiatrist pal Dr Mark Greenwood (Sydney Greenstreet), Richard tries to solve the puzzle, without revealing his own guilt in the process …
— Film Noir of the Week.