I am not sure how this movie has escaped attention for all these years. For a B picture of 78 minutes from a production company that is so small that it's main production listing is a 1 season tv series called "The Flying Doctor", it is a better film than it has any right to be. The script writers and story creators are all pretty much little know. I think that explains the title which really is the main problem with the film.
Angela Lansbury plays a woman whose only interest in life is being rich and doing anything to get there. Her Myra Leeds here is a cold hearted woman role that she did well at, not just here, but in the original Manchurian Candidate. Only since she is younger instead of being mom she is the seductive Myra who uses men's love like she is casting a fishing net. It seems she is finding an ocean full of men, willing to take her on with deadly results.
Her husband (Joe Leeds) Dick Foran is a rich businessman who is also cold and calculating. Even though he has only been married to Myra for 2 years, she is plotting to get rid of him and get as much of his money as she can. The film starts Lawyer Craig Carlson (Burr) as a successful Defense Lawyer who Myra has designs on. He is in his office recording a tape on a recorder and says he only is going to live 55 minutes (the film is only slightly longer than that).
Myra claims to love Carlson. She convinces him to meet with her husband Joe and tell him he wants to marry her. He does that and Joe is so much like Myra that Joe tells Carlson he needs a couple of days to think it over. This and most of the story is a flashback for everything leading up to the office.
Myra gets a call from Joe the next day that he is coming home from the office early and wants to talk to her about something important. When Joe gets home, he finds Myra in bed with a black cat, and within a few minutes she shoots Joe. Myra calls the police and when they come tries to convince them it was in Self-Defense because Joe was angry about Carlson's wanting to marry her. The police look at the physical evidence, and DA Ray Willis (John Dehner) decides he is charging Myra with First Degree Murder. Obviously the motive is she wants all of Joes money. Meanwhile, Myra gets Carlson to defend her. Here we get a dose of Burr playing a Defense Attorney for the first time and he behaves a lot like Perry Mason (after DA Ray is done with the first witness, Carlson does a perfect "No Questions" for cross examination ).
Trouble is, unlike Mason, Carlson has over looked an important man named Carl Holt (Lamont Johnson). Seems this Artist went to College with Myra and is in love with her too. After Carlson gets Myra off innocent, he gets a letter Joe wrote before his death that makes him realize in his defense he has made a mistake and gotten off a guilty client. Then Carlson decides to plan how get Myra to murder him, so that she will get justice after all.
Carlson employs artist Holt, to paint his portrait so that he and Myra can't elope to Europe and get married for 2 weeks. He gradually sets up the way to trap her and then invites Holt and Myra out for dinner prior to springing his trap. It is a great trap and the way the films plays out, it amazes me how with such a really shoe string budget a minor production company got such a good film out of this. Watch for Denver Pyle as Lt. Bradley, one of the main investigators for the police in her case.
Some might think this is close to a classic film called " Double Indemnity" . It is really not even close to it other than the money motive. No one is trying to bilk an insurance company. Instead a cold, hard hearted woman is 3 timing at least 3 men trying to get what she wants from all of them. The pity is this is nearly a great film and well worth looking at, yet folks have rarely seen it. I found it on You Tube and while the print is not the greatest black and white I have ever seen, it does not detract from a really well done writing and acting job from all involved.
To me though, the title "Cold Hearted Woman" would have been more apt. Lansbury really did get a rehearsal here for the cold hearted mother she would become in the later Manchurian Candidate. As for Burr, this role did not cinch Perry Mason. He was originally cast and the DA for Perry Mason. It was only after the screen tests that they changed their minds about that at Pisano Productions. I wish they had hired John Dehner to do the Hamilton Burger role, not that I don't like William Talman. It's just John Dehner is a better actor. He never got the big starring roles, but he is always very solid in many roles as he is here playing the DA. With over 120 movie roles and over 150 tv roles, it's a shame he did not. He was a great evil guy on The Wild Wild West.
Angela Lansbury plays a woman whose only interest in life is being rich and doing anything to get there. Her Myra Leeds here is a cold hearted woman role that she did well at, not just here, but in the original Manchurian Candidate. Only since she is younger instead of being mom she is the seductive Myra who uses men's love like she is casting a fishing net. It seems she is finding an ocean full of men, willing to take her on with deadly results.
Her husband (Joe Leeds) Dick Foran is a rich businessman who is also cold and calculating. Even though he has only been married to Myra for 2 years, she is plotting to get rid of him and get as much of his money as she can. The film starts Lawyer Craig Carlson (Burr) as a successful Defense Lawyer who Myra has designs on. He is in his office recording a tape on a recorder and says he only is going to live 55 minutes (the film is only slightly longer than that).
Myra claims to love Carlson. She convinces him to meet with her husband Joe and tell him he wants to marry her. He does that and Joe is so much like Myra that Joe tells Carlson he needs a couple of days to think it over. This and most of the story is a flashback for everything leading up to the office.
Myra gets a call from Joe the next day that he is coming home from the office early and wants to talk to her about something important. When Joe gets home, he finds Myra in bed with a black cat, and within a few minutes she shoots Joe. Myra calls the police and when they come tries to convince them it was in Self-Defense because Joe was angry about Carlson's wanting to marry her. The police look at the physical evidence, and DA Ray Willis (John Dehner) decides he is charging Myra with First Degree Murder. Obviously the motive is she wants all of Joes money. Meanwhile, Myra gets Carlson to defend her. Here we get a dose of Burr playing a Defense Attorney for the first time and he behaves a lot like Perry Mason (after DA Ray is done with the first witness, Carlson does a perfect "No Questions" for cross examination ).
Trouble is, unlike Mason, Carlson has over looked an important man named Carl Holt (Lamont Johnson). Seems this Artist went to College with Myra and is in love with her too. After Carlson gets Myra off innocent, he gets a letter Joe wrote before his death that makes him realize in his defense he has made a mistake and gotten off a guilty client. Then Carlson decides to plan how get Myra to murder him, so that she will get justice after all.
Carlson employs artist Holt, to paint his portrait so that he and Myra can't elope to Europe and get married for 2 weeks. He gradually sets up the way to trap her and then invites Holt and Myra out for dinner prior to springing his trap. It is a great trap and the way the films plays out, it amazes me how with such a really shoe string budget a minor production company got such a good film out of this. Watch for Denver Pyle as Lt. Bradley, one of the main investigators for the police in her case.
Some might think this is close to a classic film called " Double Indemnity" . It is really not even close to it other than the money motive. No one is trying to bilk an insurance company. Instead a cold, hard hearted woman is 3 timing at least 3 men trying to get what she wants from all of them. The pity is this is nearly a great film and well worth looking at, yet folks have rarely seen it. I found it on You Tube and while the print is not the greatest black and white I have ever seen, it does not detract from a really well done writing and acting job from all involved.
To me though, the title "Cold Hearted Woman" would have been more apt. Lansbury really did get a rehearsal here for the cold hearted mother she would become in the later Manchurian Candidate. As for Burr, this role did not cinch Perry Mason. He was originally cast and the DA for Perry Mason. It was only after the screen tests that they changed their minds about that at Pisano Productions. I wish they had hired John Dehner to do the Hamilton Burger role, not that I don't like William Talman. It's just John Dehner is a better actor. He never got the big starring roles, but he is always very solid in many roles as he is here playing the DA. With over 120 movie roles and over 150 tv roles, it's a shame he did not. He was a great evil guy on The Wild Wild West.