Saw this again recently after a couple of decades, and what sticks is Joan Fontaine--sweet, pretty, and evil. She's Christabel, the rootless blonde who turns up in San Francisco and moves in with lovely Joan Leslie, and takes over her boyfriend (Zachary Scott, not quite right for this part) and her life. It is, as several have commented, All About Eve-like, but more overt: How many times does Nicholas Ray close a scene with Fontaine, smiling to herself in an evil, I've-done-more-mischief, way? Robert Ryan's also on hand, virile as all getout, and Mel Ferrer is a quipping artist who gets most of the good lines; commenters who see the character as gay must have overlooked his line to Fontaine about how when he's not painting, he spends most of his time trying to sell himself as harmless to suspicious husbands. Some nice location photography, and the screenplay's not out of the top drawer, but it will do. Fontaine looks like she's having fun, and she seldom got to play such a baddie. Plus, it's distinctly un-Breen-Code-like--while Christabel is found out and humiliated, she gets away with quite a lot.
Review of Born to Be Bad
