Another Man's Poison

I don't find the plot that bad, it is good; but I dislike the acting of Ms Davis. I dislike the ways she portays her roles and characters. I've watched several movies but couldn't really go through them. I have seen this one to the end, although it was hard due to the acting of Ms Davis that I do not find pleasing.

(There are spoilers) Breaking into the mansion of famous mystery writer Janet Frobisher, Bette Davis,for a prearranged meeting with her husband Preston bank robber George Bates, Garry Merrill, is shocked to find out that his partner in crime had been murdered by his estranged wife. Janet who's been having an affair with her secretary Chris', Barbara Murry, boyfriend Larry, Anthony Steel, had been surprised to find her old man, Preston, getting into the mix by using her home as a safe house to later, when the heats off, take off on a steam ship out of the country with his fellow bank robber Bates. Janet gave the fugitive a drink laced with a strong sedative that was prescribed by local veterinarian Dr. Hnderson, Emlyn Williams, for her horse Fury that put Preston to sleep forever. With one of the bank guards shot and seriously wounded during the robbery by Preston Bates want's to save his neck from the hangman's rope, if the guard dies and he's caught by the police, to have Preston admit he was the one who shot him and even has Preston's gun and the fingerprints that go along with it to prove it. Bates efforts are now all moot since he's, Preston, no longer around to face justice. We now have this very complicated scenario in the film where Bates, after he and Janet deep six Preston's body in a nearby lake, impersonates Preston as his now wife Janet secretly connives to also murder him in order to keep Bates from implicating her in her husbands murder. It's never really explained why Janet murdered Preston in the first place all we know is that she did the guy in just because he may have gotten in the way of her affair with Larry but why kill the man since he was separated from Janet for some three years and couldn't care less if she was having a love affair with Larry or anyone else? All Preston wanted was to get away from the police and check out of the country. For all her smarts Janet is outsmarted by Bates, who's on to her back-stabbing tactics, at almost every turn with him surviving a near-fatal car crash, that she secretly arraigned for him, and then for some reason not at all fully explained, in fact as Bates' was about to tell her just before he suddenly fell ill from a poisoned drink that Janet gave him, why he killed her prized horse Fury. Bates claiming that the horse broke it's leg, a bald face lie on Bates' part, and that he was forced to shoot it gets Janet to lose her composure and almost spill the beans on herself to who really Bates' is and why he's impersonating her husband, because she murdered him and got rid of the body. While all this is going on both Larry and Chris drop in at the Frobisher Estate for a stay over the weekend which makes things even more confusing with Larry finding out that his secret love, Janet, is now back with her husband! At the same time Chris begins to realize that he's, Larry, dropping her for not only her boss, Janet, but for a much older, Janet is 43 and Chris is 22, woman to boot! The big break in the case comes from non other then the friendly and somewhat overbearing Dr. Hernderson who it later turns out knows a lot more about both Bates and Preston that he's been letting on, which is total ignorance, and is himself playing some kind of mind game, like a junior Sherlock Holmes, on his own to trap both Janet and Bates and bring the two scoundrels to justice. Dr. Henderson is beaten to the punch by both Janet & Bates at the end of the movie by the two playing an even bigger, and deadlier, game or trick on each other. Not one of Bette Davis' better films but her interaction with Garry Merrill, her husband at the time, is really worth watching as the two try to one-up each other in trying to pull off the perfect crime at the others expense with both ending up on the losing side.

source: Another Man's Poison

Bette Davis puts on quite a display of Davis mannerisms but nothing can disguise the fact that this is a talky, slow-moving melodrama with a less than convincing script. It all has the feeling of something we've seen many times before--but the ending does pack a wallop with Davis letting herself indulge in the ironic climax. While she plots and plans her way through the murky plot, others around her have not much else to do but recite some dreary lines. Gary Merrill is surprisingly dull as a man with bad intentions and Anthony Steel is wasted in a supporting role. Emlyn Williams has some interesting moments as a snoopy neighbor. The plot twist is a good one but it takes so long getting there that you might be yawning before the finish. Production-wise, there are shortcomings. It looks more like a photographed stage play--one that would have closed after a few performances. Not one of Bette's best--but fans will no doubt get a kick out of her emoting with full use of her bag of tricks.

This is quite the oddball movie. As previous reviewers have mentioned, it is based on a play and the entire movie has that "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" feel to it. It's also in need of some serious restoration. The quality is rather shabby and the over all film is very dark. Bette is filmed in some unflattering angles throughout, especially the very last scene in the movie. I also found the music to be distracting and made me wonder if the composer was watching the same movie as I was. One particular ominous scene had a "Let's go romp in the fields" happy music playing. The movie starts out quite slow, but slowly picks up some steam. Although somewhat enjoyable, I'm still debating whether I should add this to my movie collection.

This film is quite an ordeal to sit through. Bette, and real-life husband Merrill, are totally miscast. The scenery chewing in this stage-to-screen British contraption must be seen to be believed. Some of the supporting cast fares well. but Davis is at her post-"All About Eve" worst. Soon afterward,she followed this low-budget "indie" with "The Star," another embarrassment(even though she was nominated for an Oscar for the latter!!). The plot is muddled. Characters do things for no particular reason. And, what's with that prying veterinarian neighbor?? His is one of the most annoying portrayals ever put on screen......after the first scene, you want the guy knocked off by Davis, preferably in a painful manner. This is worth seeing ONCE, if only to see how a top actress should NOT conduct her career.

Even an excellent cast can't redeem this appalling and ridiculously plotted so-called thriller that Bette Davis and her then husband Gary Merrill made in Britain in 1951. She's a crime writer who has murdered her husband and he's a bank robber on the run who poses as the dead husband, (don't even think of asking how any of this came about). She's also having an affair with her secretary's financee, (Anthony Steel), and then there's always the nosey vet from the neighbouring farm, (Emlyn Williams). It was based on a play by the actor Leslie Sands and you can tell, (Val Guest, of all people, did the adaptation), and was directed by Irving Rapper. It's far from one of his best efforts. In what may be her worst performance Bette camps it up like a parody of herself with only Emlyn Williams coming out of it with something like his reputation intact. Needless to say, it wasn't a hit.

I agree with other reviewers who found merit in this film. Maybe because I watched it "on a dark and stormy night," I found the film to have quite a few endearing qualities, including a sufficiently gloomy and Gothic setting, solid acting, a big dash of melodrama (sometimes unintentionally funny), some brilliant catch phrases, a couple of handsome equines, some much-needed tawdriness, intriguing real world background, an astute and meddling detective type, and of course Bette as the menacing, manipulative author of thrillers (undoubtedly as sordid as her behavior). I mean, what's not to like? Sure, the plot has some real twists that are beyond suspending disbelief, and the quality of the film isn't the best, but if you're a fan of the genre or Bette, then this is a must see. But first, pour yourself a stiff drink. Preferably, direct from the bottle.

Mystery novelist Bette Davis has taken a house on the Yorkshire Moors, an inhospitable mausoleum that puzzlingly draws a number of unexpected visitors. One evening she returns home to find a stranger (Gary Merrill) ensconced in an easy chair. He has come to settle accounts with her ne'er-do-well husband, with whom he pulled off a robbery in London that ended with a policeman's being shot. Unfortunately, Davis has just poisoned said husband, whose body stiffens in the library. A quick shift in circumstances has Merrill posing as the husband, an inconvenience since Davis is also having an affair with the fiancé of her young secretary.... Another Man's Poison started out as a stage play, with the result that it's talky and contrived. Hardly a scene goes by without interruption from one or another of those visitors crashing in through various doors. Among them is snoopy veterinarian Emlyn Williams, whose lucky patients are generally dumb. Davis and Merrill plot against each other with all the ingenuity of Elizabethan revenge tragedy – even Davis' pet steed falls victim to the murderous ploys. Between Davis' spectacular comeback in All About Eve and her startling second comeback in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, she had some lean years with poor parts. When she lacked a full-blooded character to play, her acting became sharply mannered and elocutionary, as here. Fans of thrillers written for the British footlights, like The Mousetrap or Williams' own Night Must Fall, may find Another Man's Poison reasonably satisfying; it's a contraption, and once it's over there's no need to think back on it. But it is decidedly lesser Bette Davis.

I don't believe there's an American actress who has turned in a finer set of performances as Bette Davis did from the late 1930s to the late 1940s. But by 1950, her star was in decline. The scripts were not as good. Some of her performances seemed a tad over the top. But she was still a force to behold...and enjoy. It was a dark and stormy night. Well, it wasn't stormy. But it sure was dark! Much of the early part of this film is so dark that I would guess the studio lighting was by flashlight (and only 1, at that). Really, this film has an awfully cheap look to it. The film also suffers from atrocious cinematography or significant deterioration of the film stock...or both (at least in the print shown on TCM). Another problem here is Gary Merrill's facial and body hair. Yes, I'm serious. From scene to scene his 5 o'clock shadow varies from heavy to light. And, if he were still alive, I'd suggest he shave his chest for the cinema! Shades of the Wolf Man! This must rate as one of Bette Davis' worst films. How she ever selected this -- particularly after her recent success in "All About Eve". Think it's just my misguided opinion? Many reviewers feel it's what led to a sharp decline in her career! So who is responsible for this being such a monstrosity? I'd like to blame the director, Irving Rapper, but he directed Davis in "Now, Voyager" (1942; one of her finest films), and "The Corn Is Green" (1945). I don't know much about the writer, Val Guest, so I'll heap a pile of blame on him. But in regard to both jobs, I've seen better in high school plays. And then there are the actors. If you want to see Bette Davis overact, and act poorly, this is your chance. I adored her in the 1940s, but here she had lost her touch. And Gary Merrill...well, I remembered him as being a decent television actor...but perhaps I have a faulty memory, because here he is just terrible. Emlyn Williams...truly annoying here. Anthony Steel as a boy friend of two women...forgettable. Barbara Murray as one of those women...forgettable. I don't know if I've ever given a "1" before, but this is one of those films you watch to see just how bad it is. Enough said.