The Two Mrs. Carrolls

An artist (Humphrey Bogart) poisons his first wife, then tries it with his second (Barbara Stanwyck).

The Two Mrs. Carrolls is, for the most part, an easy ride thanks to the charisma of Humphrey Bogart and Barbara Stanwyck. With a few more script polishes and a better director (Hitchcock would have been an obvious choice, but then, he’d already made Suspicion six years earlier), this could have been something special. Bogart has the range to play both charming and menacing, and Stanwyck holds her own equally well, yet director Peter Godfrey can’t seem to decide just how seriously he wants to take the material.

The film opens well enough, with a charming Bogie romancing an innocent Stanwyck in the countryside. The sequence works well because it’s so subtle. There’s just a hint of menace under Bogart’s suave demeanor. Unfortunately, the film soon veers to camp with Bogie’s lurking around a dark gothic mansion painting ridiculous pictures of his wife as the angel of death. Then it’s back to suave and sinister as the film seems to take itself seriously again. This pattern culminates in a ridiculously campy ending highlighted by a Dracula-esqe entrance by Bogie that will make you laugh out loud.

Still, while it’s definitely frustrating, The Two Mrs. Carrolls remains entertaining, which stands as a testament to the star power of Bogart and Stanwyck.