It is obvious to the audience, if not the characters in the film, that from the moment Anne Baxter steps on screen, she's going to be trouble. The way she fawns over everybody in this large household, from handsome Ralph Bellamy to his worried wife Ruth Warrick to aunt Aline MacMahon, Bellamy and Warrick's daughter, Connie Laird, and even the family servants, Percy Kilbride and Margaret Hamilton is so gooey-sweet that something is obviously amiss. That becomes certain when she goes cuckoo over a tiny bird and screams in fear over seeing tree leaves fluttering outside her window, claiming they look like birds which she is deathly afraid of. She utilizes the work relationship between painter Bellamy and his model Marie "the body" MacDonald to put tension in his marriage to Warrick and ultimately sets her sights on Bellamy herself. MacDonald has a wonderful drunken scene that is the acting highlight of the film.
While Bette Davis had played the epitome of the sociopath in her lavish soap opera "In This Our Life", her character was obvious from the get-go, and it is ironic that the future "Eve Harrington" would play a very similar character who doesn't at all seem like a vicious schemer out to destroy everything she touches. This ain't no guest you want lingering around longer than necessary even if the build-up to the revelation of what she's up to takes time in developing. Margaret Hamilton has some wonderful moments as the loyal, if sometimes gossipy housekeeper, especially when she's confronted by Warrick for snooping. Moody photography and haunting music help build the tension, and the result is a psychological drama that is sometimes gripping even if ultimately it is somewhat predictable.
While Bette Davis had played the epitome of the sociopath in her lavish soap opera "In This Our Life", her character was obvious from the get-go, and it is ironic that the future "Eve Harrington" would play a very similar character who doesn't at all seem like a vicious schemer out to destroy everything she touches. This ain't no guest you want lingering around longer than necessary even if the build-up to the revelation of what she's up to takes time in developing. Margaret Hamilton has some wonderful moments as the loyal, if sometimes gossipy housekeeper, especially when she's confronted by Warrick for snooping. Moody photography and haunting music help build the tension, and the result is a psychological drama that is sometimes gripping even if ultimately it is somewhat predictable.