It's not until the last 20 minutes with the storm that the movie really takes off. To that point, the pace is leisurely as we watch the manipulative Evelyn burrow her way through the happy household, leaving it a shambles. But, once the storm starts, catch that great cameo shot of an exultant Evelyn (Baxter) at the window as her rival Ann (Warwick) departs, the lightning flashes punctuating her wicked triumph. From then on, it's high Gothic drama and director John Brahm reveling in his atmospheric element-- the crashing waves, the expressive lighting, the heavy emotions. Meanwhile, add this movie to his other two masterpieces of fevered derangement, The Lodger (1944), and Hangover Square (1945).
If ever there was a textbook example of theatrical emoting its Ann Baxter. You can just about see the wheels turning behind that expressive face. Here, however, that tendency to emote works in the character's favor. After all, it's by faking emotions that Evelyn is able to manipulate others. So we see those wheels turning at the same time her victims do not, heightening our involvement. Still, I'm not sure I buy Douglas' (Bellamy) rather obtuse character. He seems a little slow to catch on to situations. But then if he weren't, there wouldn't be much of a story.
Come to think of it-- does the movie end right at the point of a crime being committed? If so, then how did an unpunished crime get past the rules of the Production Code. Anyway, it's an occasionally gripping tale of Gothic madness, thanks to some fine ensemble acting (e.g. the joyous breakfast scene) and director Brahm's real feel for the material.
(In passing—the gorgeous Marie Mc Donald {Miriam} was something of a Lindsey Lohan of her day. One stunt in late 1956 got national notoriety when she faked her kidnapping by turning up in the desert near Palm Springs in a nightgown, claiming she'd been grabbed by two men. Later the episode was exposed as a publicity stunt, but not before ever- enterprising Hollywood types turned the notoriety into a Jane Russell movie, The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown {1957}! Too bad Mc Donald later committed suicide; I think she does quite well in this movie.)
