Console best movie i've ever seen.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Khun Kru Mark 'Bedelia' is directed confidently by Lance Comfort whose unsubtle and brisk style of direction kept him busy on the B-movie circuit and inevitably into TV work during the 1950s.Interestingly; the story was written by Vera Caspary who specialized in stories about women getting into trouble, including 'Laura', later made famous, of course, by Hitchcock.Not every film made in the 1940s was a 'Noir'. I see this term being used to describe films that were made in black and white rather than what they actually are... and Bedelia is NOT in my view in any shape or form a 'noir' as I understand one to be. There are certainly no hard-boiled cynical characters, bleak sleazy settings or overly-emphasized shadowy lit scenes here.Bedelia is a well-crafted suspense movie with memorable characters and performances. Margaret Lockwood is a treat to watch as her pathological insanity slowly reveals itself. The plot is simple yet captivating and (despite everything being laid out rather too obviously) the uptempo direction works well to keep the spectator focused.Thankfully the drama comes across naturally and doesn't descend into melodrama... which is just as well as there is no comic relief at all in this yarn. Ian Hunter is especially convincing as the poor husband who has the job of dealing with all the women in his life.There's a good copy of this on YouTube so what are you waiting for? Get that mug of Horlicks, draw the curtains kick off your shoes!

mark.waltz Whether ingénue or dark lady, Margaret Lockwood was as stunning as they come. 70-80 years after her reign as Britain's most glamorous actress, she's got a following yet is hardly mentioned in conversation along with raven haired beauties like Merle Oberon, Vivien Leigh or Ava Gardner. But as the femme fatale of a slew of Gainsborough films in the 1940's, she has gained a world wide reputation among classic film connoisseurs as one of the best, with American audiences as entranced with her, perhaps more than the others, because she's a new discovery and her films are delightfully decadent. Newly married to staid Ian Hunter, Lockwood's dark beauty Bedelia is as mysterious as she is charming. But there's an unexplained darkness in her, with her eyes widening in horror as various names are dropped, as if she knew at any moment that her past was coming back to haunt her. While husband Hunter just becomes concerned over her change in moods, old friends Barry K. Barnes and Anne Crawford (as well as the nosy servants and nurse) start to have their own suspicions, creating a mystery that will have the audience intrigued as well.I've already been a fan of Lockwood's since first seeing her as the heroine in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes", then finding her Gainsborough films, the best of which are "The Man in Grey" and of course "The Wicked Lady". Those were period films, and while this independent film is modern set, it is as Gothic as the others. By the same author as "Laura" (Vera Caspary), this is not as classic a film, but the pacing and details are quite excellent, slow moving enough to be moody yet never dull. The fact that Lockwood remained loyal to British cinema shows that she cared about art enough to convince her to avoid "going Hollywood".

writers_reign Journeyman director Lance Comfort never did much that wasn't ephemeral and here he turns in another ho-hum melodrama from a novel by Vera Caspary, which the author set in the New England of 1913, on the eve of one war and which now finds itself in Old England in 1945, at the end of another. Margatet Lockwood is clearly hiding a secret or why else would she refuse vehemently to have her photograph taken and Barry K Barnes is equally clearly something more than the artist he purports to be. Alas, it's hard to work up much of a sweat about any of this and though we do stick around for the revelation that Bedelia (Lockwood) is a serial rich husband killer and Barnes is really an insurance investigator it's hard to care one way or the other. The whole thing is done well enough with all departments - script, photography, directing, acting being up to snuff but it really does lack that 'little something extra' that Ellen Terry spoke of. Worth a look but that's all.

howardmorley What a treat to buy this old movie from a rare US dealer to add to my Margaret Lockwood (ML) collection.I was in doubt if I would ever find a copy after many days of fruitless research as it is not sold by mainstream video/DVD dealers, never appears on eBay nor is it shown on UK TV networks.In fact the film only seemed to be shown by exclusive cinema clubs.I have a fascination for film noirs made in the year of my birth, i.e. 1946.Barry K Barnes was on her side to defend her as a barrister in "The Girl in the News"(1940) when ML played nurse Graham wrongly accused of murdering her employer.Here in "Bedelia" he plays an insurance investigator who adopts the persona of an artist when under cover, investigating deaths by poison of Bedelia's previous husbands.In "Bedelia" he is out to get her.Ian Hunter as Charlie Carrington had the good fortune to play opposite Hedy Lamarr in "Come Live With Me" (1941) and here co-stars with ML, another sultry, raven haired beauty.If film fans can visualise Lady Skelton (ML's most famous role) from "The Wicked Lady" (1945) transported from the late 17th century to 1946; this is how she would behave!!It was good to see Anne Crawford again.I have her in my collection in "They Were Sisters" and "Millions Like Us" both from 1943.She tragically died quite young per IMDb's biography.I thought the Vera Caspary story, originally set in Connecticut in 1913, was easily transplanted to Europe in a contemporary setting.It gave ML the chance to wear some attractive costumes.I thought the user rating low at 5.7 and have rated it 7/10 to give it a bit of an uplift.If any of you can find a copy of this rare film, it will be well worth the effort.