You Know What They Say About Sailors and Travelling Salesmen...
This weekend's review: The Bigamist.
The Bigamist looked like a very interesting movie just from the title and description alone. A noir centered around someone having two spouses has a lot of potential, especially when you consider the way noirs often play out. Once I’d watched it, I’d say it’s still an interesting movie…just not quite in the ways I’d expected.
The movie opens with a couple, Harry and Eve Graham (Edmond O’Brien and Joan Fontaine) in the office of an adoption agency. According to their agent, Mr. Jordan, (Edmund Gwenn), they’re very close to getting the child, but a background check needs to be run, which makes Harry visibly nervous in a way that Jordan picks up on. Harry is an appliance salesman who alternates his time between San Francisco and L.A., so Jordan goes to L.A. to see what Harry’s friends and coworkers think of him there. A little sleuthing on Jordan’s part winds up bringing him to a house, where he finds Harry…and a baby. Ashamed, Harry tells the story (which takes up the majority of the movie) of how he was lonely and ran into a woman named Phyllis (Ida Lupino) by chance, and how their relationship progressed until he wound up in over his head. After Jordan (and us) learn all the facts, one important question remains; what exactly is Harry going to do now that someone knows the truth?
I will say that the movie does a fairly good job in regards to its characters. When we first see Harry’s suspicious behavior, we immediately assume he’s up to no good (probably related to the bigamy of the title) and dislike him for that reason. Once the truth comes out, though, and he starts telling his side of the story, he becomes a lot more sympathetic, and while you may not root for him, you can at least understand where he’s coming from. In fact, there’s no real “bad guy” in this movie; Jordan comes across as a diligent man wanting to do his job right and make sure babies are placed in stable, loving homes, and neither Eve or Phyllis feel like femme fatales who drove Harry to do what he did via manipulation. You wind up feeling sorry for all of them, which is a neat trick. Although that sensation is marred somewhat by one thing, though that’s probably my modern sensibilities talking.
Simply put, the ultimate portrayal of Eve doesn’t sit well with me. When you first meet her and see Harry’s behavior, we feel sorry for her because we assume that she’s the nice girl being cheated on with a femme fatale. When Harry starts to tell his story, however, we learn that Eve was very upset about being infertile, and thus threw herself into helping Harry with his business. We’re told she was very good at it and helped him become more successful, but it came at the cost of any physical and emotional intimacy in their relationship, hence why he wound up falling in with Phyllis. Eve even pretty much admits later on that she was trying to fill the void in her life by focusing on the business. The movie winds up giving the impression that you can either be a good businesswoman or a loving wife and mother, but not both, and I can’t help but be a little resentful of that. There’s a scene at a dinner party where Eve is in great form that could have landed her on my “Best Female Character” list in other circumstances, but here just left a bad taste in my mouth. I still sympathize with her, especially given the ending (which we’ll get to), but it is tempered somewhat by the decision of the writers.
(Admittedly, it is possible that we’re supposed to see Harry as an unreliable narrator who’s demonizing his wife in order to justify his actions, but I didn’t really get that impression. He seems to genuinely care for both women, and only seems to explain what was going on with Eve as background information rather than a full justification. Opinions may vary on that score, though.)
One other issue I have with the movie is that it decided to place the bigamy front and center. Not only is it the title of the movie (and checking IMDB suggests that there was never an alternate title for it), but the reveal of the bigamy happens seventeen minutes in. I think keeping it a mystery for a bit longer, or at least having a different title, would have allowed the audience to get a little more invested in finding out why Harry acts so shifty in the early going. They might even assume it’s for typical noir reasons (he’s a criminal in hiding, he killed someone and covered it up, etc.), and thus be even more surprised when it turns out to be something relatively benign. Instead, while the acting is still effective, you kind of know what’s coming, so you spend those first seventeen minutes waiting for the reveal, which may distract you somewhat from everything else.
Finally, some miscellaneous observations. First, there’s a line where Jordan states that he once gave a child to unfit parents, as an explanation as to why he’s so thorough nowadays. I initially thought that this was going to lead into a flashback, where it would turn out his prior experience tied in to the bigamy of the title, and the Grahams were just the catalyst who would make a second appearance at the end of the movie. Instead, there’s no explanation given, which is a shame because I think there’d be an interesting if possibly tragic story there. Second, Harry meets Phyllis when he decides to take one of those L.A. tours where you go around and see the houses of famous people. As you know, I’m a movie buff, and I’ve been to L.A. a few times, but I’ve never been on one of those tours. Maybe things have changed in the past fifty or so years, but if this movie is any indication, I don’t think I want to. The houses we see on the tour in the movie all look like perfectly ordinary suburban homes instead of anything particularly grand, and the bus driver doesn’t seem to stop and linger so you can admire it or take pictures. In fact, the driver/guide doesn’t seem very good at his job, because he just announces who the house belongs to and then falls silent instead of giving some more interesting facts. He also allows Harry and Phyllis to have a fairly loud conversation, but I’ll give that one a bit more slack because it’s necessary for the plot. And while the scene makes me less inclined to do one of those tours myself, it does serve as an interesting time capsule for who was on those routes back in 1953. The names we hear are Louella Parsons, Jack Benny, James Stewart, Edmund Gwenn*, Oscar Levant, Barbara Stanwyck, and Jane Wyman, most of whom your average moviegoer won’t even have heard of nowadays. Finally, there’s that ending, which winds up feeling jarring. While it’s much more gentle than I’d have expected (I’m a little surprised the Hays Code permitted it), it doesn’t officially resolve anything, and you’re left wondering what’s going to happen to the three main participants. Based on the acting, I can hazard a guess, but I’d still have liked that closure. It doesn’t bring down the movie, but it’s definitely not a great ending.
I think I probably recommend this movie, if only for being different. With good acting and an interesting story, it’s pretty original and more proof that noir was a genre that allowed people a lot of room to play within the formula. Just try to (as my tag says) adjust your expectations for the beginning and ending of the movie, and you may find yourself pleasantly surprised. Or as pleasantly surprised as you can be with a subject like this.
*I didn’t realize until writing up this review that Gwenn was also in this movie. Now I’m wondering if they slipped his name/house in as a meta moment. It may also partially explain why Harry gushes about how good Miracle on 34th Street was…
The Bigamist looked like a very interesting movie just from the title and description alone. A noir centered around someone having two spouses has a lot of potential, especially when you consider the way noirs often play out. Once I’d watched it, I’d say it’s still an interesting movie…just not quite in the ways I’d expected.
The movie opens with a couple, Harry and Eve Graham (Edmond O’Brien and Joan Fontaine) in the office of an adoption agency. According to their agent, Mr. Jordan, (Edmund Gwenn), they’re very close to getting the child, but a background check needs to be run, which makes Harry visibly nervous in a way that Jordan picks up on. Harry is an appliance salesman who alternates his time between San Francisco and L.A., so Jordan goes to L.A. to see what Harry’s friends and coworkers think of him there. A little sleuthing on Jordan’s part winds up bringing him to a house, where he finds Harry…and a baby. Ashamed, Harry tells the story (which takes up the majority of the movie) of how he was lonely and ran into a woman named Phyllis (Ida Lupino) by chance, and how their relationship progressed until he wound up in over his head. After Jordan (and us) learn all the facts, one important question remains; what exactly is Harry going to do now that someone knows the truth?
I will say that the movie does a fairly good job in regards to its characters. When we first see Harry’s suspicious behavior, we immediately assume he’s up to no good (probably related to the bigamy of the title) and dislike him for that reason. Once the truth comes out, though, and he starts telling his side of the story, he becomes a lot more sympathetic, and while you may not root for him, you can at least understand where he’s coming from. In fact, there’s no real “bad guy” in this movie; Jordan comes across as a diligent man wanting to do his job right and make sure babies are placed in stable, loving homes, and neither Eve or Phyllis feel like femme fatales who drove Harry to do what he did via manipulation. You wind up feeling sorry for all of them, which is a neat trick. Although that sensation is marred somewhat by one thing, though that’s probably my modern sensibilities talking.
Simply put, the ultimate portrayal of Eve doesn’t sit well with me. When you first meet her and see Harry’s behavior, we feel sorry for her because we assume that she’s the nice girl being cheated on with a femme fatale. When Harry starts to tell his story, however, we learn that Eve was very upset about being infertile, and thus threw herself into helping Harry with his business. We’re told she was very good at it and helped him become more successful, but it came at the cost of any physical and emotional intimacy in their relationship, hence why he wound up falling in with Phyllis. Eve even pretty much admits later on that she was trying to fill the void in her life by focusing on the business. The movie winds up giving the impression that you can either be a good businesswoman or a loving wife and mother, but not both, and I can’t help but be a little resentful of that. There’s a scene at a dinner party where Eve is in great form that could have landed her on my “Best Female Character” list in other circumstances, but here just left a bad taste in my mouth. I still sympathize with her, especially given the ending (which we’ll get to), but it is tempered somewhat by the decision of the writers.
(Admittedly, it is possible that we’re supposed to see Harry as an unreliable narrator who’s demonizing his wife in order to justify his actions, but I didn’t really get that impression. He seems to genuinely care for both women, and only seems to explain what was going on with Eve as background information rather than a full justification. Opinions may vary on that score, though.)
One other issue I have with the movie is that it decided to place the bigamy front and center. Not only is it the title of the movie (and checking IMDB suggests that there was never an alternate title for it), but the reveal of the bigamy happens seventeen minutes in. I think keeping it a mystery for a bit longer, or at least having a different title, would have allowed the audience to get a little more invested in finding out why Harry acts so shifty in the early going. They might even assume it’s for typical noir reasons (he’s a criminal in hiding, he killed someone and covered it up, etc.), and thus be even more surprised when it turns out to be something relatively benign. Instead, while the acting is still effective, you kind of know what’s coming, so you spend those first seventeen minutes waiting for the reveal, which may distract you somewhat from everything else.
Finally, some miscellaneous observations. First, there’s a line where Jordan states that he once gave a child to unfit parents, as an explanation as to why he’s so thorough nowadays. I initially thought that this was going to lead into a flashback, where it would turn out his prior experience tied in to the bigamy of the title, and the Grahams were just the catalyst who would make a second appearance at the end of the movie. Instead, there’s no explanation given, which is a shame because I think there’d be an interesting if possibly tragic story there. Second, Harry meets Phyllis when he decides to take one of those L.A. tours where you go around and see the houses of famous people. As you know, I’m a movie buff, and I’ve been to L.A. a few times, but I’ve never been on one of those tours. Maybe things have changed in the past fifty or so years, but if this movie is any indication, I don’t think I want to. The houses we see on the tour in the movie all look like perfectly ordinary suburban homes instead of anything particularly grand, and the bus driver doesn’t seem to stop and linger so you can admire it or take pictures. In fact, the driver/guide doesn’t seem very good at his job, because he just announces who the house belongs to and then falls silent instead of giving some more interesting facts. He also allows Harry and Phyllis to have a fairly loud conversation, but I’ll give that one a bit more slack because it’s necessary for the plot. And while the scene makes me less inclined to do one of those tours myself, it does serve as an interesting time capsule for who was on those routes back in 1953. The names we hear are Louella Parsons, Jack Benny, James Stewart, Edmund Gwenn*, Oscar Levant, Barbara Stanwyck, and Jane Wyman, most of whom your average moviegoer won’t even have heard of nowadays. Finally, there’s that ending, which winds up feeling jarring. While it’s much more gentle than I’d have expected (I’m a little surprised the Hays Code permitted it), it doesn’t officially resolve anything, and you’re left wondering what’s going to happen to the three main participants. Based on the acting, I can hazard a guess, but I’d still have liked that closure. It doesn’t bring down the movie, but it’s definitely not a great ending.
I think I probably recommend this movie, if only for being different. With good acting and an interesting story, it’s pretty original and more proof that noir was a genre that allowed people a lot of room to play within the formula. Just try to (as my tag says) adjust your expectations for the beginning and ending of the movie, and you may find yourself pleasantly surprised. Or as pleasantly surprised as you can be with a subject like this.
*I didn’t realize until writing up this review that Gwenn was also in this movie. Now I’m wondering if they slipped his name/house in as a meta moment. It may also partially explain why Harry gushes about how good Miracle on 34th Street was…