Which man should I have next?
I gotta say that I think the genre of humorous noir has to be one of the smaller categories of story out there, but I’ve finally run across one example. Another Man’s Poison (1951) uses a steady drip, drip of dry humor to accentuate the poor choices made by the lead characters of this story. Janet, a murder mystery writer, lives in one of those large Scottish mansions, writing her highly successful novels, with a secretary to type them up, and a housekeeper.
She also has an estranged husband, and on this stormy Friday night, her secretary and housekeeper gone for the weekend, the husband happens to be sitting in a chair in front of the fire in the great room.
Dead.
Conveyed home from the village pay phone (her phones are out) by the local veterinarian, she finds a strange man in the living room. He wants to see her husband. Why?
Her husband shot a man during a bank robbery committed by the two. And the stranger, George Bates, doesn’t want to take the blame for the likely murder committed by his partner.
But Janet doesn’t want any part of this mess, because, well, her husband met his untimely demise at her hands. A wee bit of poison, you see. Some sharp dialog, not to mention motivations, and soon the dead husband has been tossed into a nearby lake, and the stranger is permitted to stay the night.
Meanwhile, remember the phone call? Well, that was to her secretary, or more accurately, her secretary’s fiancee, because Janet, not to put too fine a point on it, is also in the business of swooping in on men vulnerable to highly successful women, such as herself.
And that ride home from the village pay phone? That vet, Dr. Henderson, has his own finely honed sensitivities. When George, the intruder, assumes the part of the estranged husband, who supposedly has been away in Malaya, Henderson would surely like to know what became of the tan he should have.
The metaphorical toilet bowl of doom which defines the noir genre is, in this case, wide, slow, but, as ever, inevitable. We watch as one bad decision after another ruins lives until bodies begin to litter the landscape. In fact, even literally.
And it’s well done. Perhaps the most grating part of the movie is the occasional assertion that Janet is beautiful, when, at least to modern sensibilities, she is not. Played by Bette Davis, she’s tenacious, aggressive, not afraid to go after what she wants, and not a wilting flower.
If you’re a noir fan or a Davis fan, you should see this for the sheer pleasure of it. For others, the pacing is not quite to modern tastes, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Make some popcorn, settle in with a sweetie, have a bit of patience.
And try not to distrust your partner afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkIcePp8WyY
