Directed by John M. Stahl
Written by Jo Swerling
Starring:
- Gene Tierney as Ellen Berent Harland
- Cornel Wilde as Richard Harland
- Jeanne Crain as Ruth Berent
- Vincent Price as Russell Quinton
- Mary Philips as Mrs. Berent
Rating: 
Gene Tierney gives one of the silver screen’s most erotically chilling performances in this sumptuously mounted psychological melodrama. Beneath her porcelain poise lies a ferocity that twists her love for Cornel Wilde’s novelist into a suffocating, near-mythic possessiveness. The Technicolor opulence only sharpens the dread, turning every serene lake and sun-drenched veranda into a trap. The plot can feel contrived and occasionally vapid, yet its venomous wit and the source novel’s malicious undercurrents keep the drama compulsively watchable. John M. Stahl frames even the film’s most sinister moments like tranquil paintings, contrasting idyllic beauty with emotional brutality. And through it all, Tierney’s glacial stares and eerie composure anchor the film in a pulverizing, unforgettable darkness.
