The Other Woman
The Other Woman (1954) - 6.0
This Hugo Haas directed/produced film begins with Walter Darman (Hugo Haas)
behind bars - but as the camera pulls back the viewer realizes that this
is just a movie set and Darman is the director. But this is noir and jails
and bars always mean something ominous or symbolic. By the time of this film
in 1954 Haas had already produced six B crime films and must have been wondering
where this was going. When would he be recognized as a fine director? None
of them were more than fillers in double features - he always had to find
money and then a studio to release it. But he persisted. After having been
a very successful comic actor back in the homeland, this must have been
frustrating and it shows here in his barbed remarks about Hollywood. "Movies.
Take a handful of sex, mix in some violence, some comedy relief and a happy
ending" is what he is advised, but he wants more than that. His own films
had the sex, violence and comedy but rarely had the happy ending. This film
is one long crawl towards bleakness.
On the set, Darman needs someone to come in and deliver three lines and
picks out a blonde extra. But she is terrible and so he moves on to another
actress. He doesn't realize it but his life just hit a truck. The blonde feels
slighted and insulted and puts into action an intricate plan to bring him
down. Her psychotic malevolence is bubbling like a cauldron.Everything is
thought out - the poor damsel in distress act, the sympathetic face, the you
were wild last night false claim after she gave him a mickey. Slowly Darman
is sucked into a dark hole as he tries to keep this away from the wife he
loves and the father-in-law who produces his films. But she just keeps pulling
him further into her spider web. It doesn't matter that he is totally innocent
- fate just doesn't care.
The blonde is Haas's favorite - Cleo Moore - who appeared in seven of his
films. She is femme fatale catnip and even in her non-Haas films she shows
up in films with titles like Over-Exposed, Women's Prison, On Dangerous
Ground and The Pace That Thrills. She was a B blonde bombshell but a little
rough looking around the edges and the kind of girl that if you met her,
you would check your wallet the second she left. But Haas had a strange
fascination for her but you can't help but wonder how much better his films
would have been with a budget and better actors - but we will never know.
In looking for some information about Haas I discovered that he has a real
fan base out there - maybe more now then back when he was making these films.
