''Conflict'' is a 1945 American
black-and-white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
suspense
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
made by
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...
. It was directed by
Curtis Bernhardt
Curtis Bernhardt (15 April 1899 – 22 February 1981) was a Jewish film director born in Worms, Germany, under the name Kurt Bernhardt.
He trained as an actor in Germany, and performed on the stage, before starting as a film director in 1924, wi ...
, produced by William Jacobs from a
screenplay
''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993.
Background
After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...
by Arthur T. Horman and
Dwight Taylor, based on the story ''The Pentacle'' by
Alfred Neumann and
Robert Siodmak
Robert Siodmak (; 8 August 1900 – 10 March 1973) was a German film director who also worked in the United States. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of films noirs he made in the 1940s, such as ''The Killers'' (19 ...
. It starred
Humphrey Bogart,
Alexis Smith
Margaret Alexis Fitzsimmons-Smith (June 8, 1921 – June 9, 1993) was a Canadian-born American actress and singer. She appeared in several major Hollywood films in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Awar ...
, and
Sydney Greenstreet
Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (December 27, 1879 – January 18, 1954) was a British-American actor. While he did not begin his career in films until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a Hollywood career lasting throu ...
. The film is the only pairing of Bogart and Greenstreet of the five in which they acted together where Bogart rather than Greenstreet is the villain or corrupt character. There is also a cameo appearance of the
Maltese Falcon statue.
Plot
On the surface, Richard and Kathryn Mason appear to be a happily married couple. But on their fifth wedding anniversary, Kathryn accuses Richard of having fallen in love with her younger sister, Evelyn Turner, who is visiting them. He does not deny it, but has resigned himself to leaving things as they are, since Kathryn certainly would not give him a divorce. Kathryn knows he knows it, and derides him further. At a party celebrating the couple's anniversary, hosted by family friend and psychologist Dr. Mark Hamilton, Evelyn meets with Mark's handsome young colleague, Professor Norman Holdsworth. On the way home Kathryn slyly mentions to Evelyn that their mother is lonely, knowing that Evelyn will feel obligated to move back home. Angered, Richard crashes their car and suffers a broken leg.
Richard decides to take desperate action. He pretends to require a wheelchair even after his leg has healed. His puzzled physician, Dr. Grant, diagnoses the problem as psychological, not physical, and suggests exercise, so a car trip to a mountain resort is arranged. At the last minute, Richard contrives to stay home to finish some work.
Going on ahead, Kathryn stops by Hamilton's home and asks him to check in on Richard. Resuming her journey, Kathryn comes upon an abandoned parked car blocking the narrow, deserted mountain road. Unexpectedly, Richard walks threateningly out of the fog. The audience is left to imagine him killing her. Next he pushes her car down a steep slope; it dislodges some logs which crash down and hide it. He returns home in time to set up an alibi by meeting with an employee he had summoned to finish the work. In his presence he twice phones the resort, only to be told she has not arrived. He then notifies the police that she is missing.
Subsequently things happen to make Richard wonder if Kathryn somehow survived. First, the police find a pickpocket in possession of a cameo ring that Richard and Evelyn identify as Kathryn's; the man admits to stealing it from a woman matching Kathryn's description, ''after'' her disappearance. Then Richard smells Kathryn's perfume in their bedroom, finds her key to a home safe, and opens it: her wedding ring is inside.
Mark suggests Richard and Evelyn join him on a fishing vacation to relieve the strain. Mark also invites Holsworth, who takes the opportunity to ask Evelyn to marry him. She is undecided. When she tells Richard, he believes her hesitation is because of him. He tells her he loves her, and that she must feel the same about him, but she strongly denies it. Later, realizing his mistake, he encourages Holsworth to try again.
Then a
pawn shop
A pawnbroker is an individual or business (pawnshop or pawn shop) that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. The items having been ''pawned'' to the broker are themselves called ''pledges'' or ...
claim ticket is mailed to Richard, addressed in what appears to be his wife's handwriting. At the pawn shop, he finds Kathryn's locket and her signature in the register, but when he returns with the police, the register is different and there is no locket. Finally, he sees a woman on the street who looks and is dressed like his wife. He follows her to an apartment, only to find that it is vacant, with no one inside.
Unable to reconcile these occurrences any longer, Richard returns to the crime scene to see once and for all if Kathryn's body is inside the car. But Hamilton and the police are waiting for him. Kathryn's body had been found and removed long before, and now Richard is arrested. Hamilton reveals that he had been onto Richard since Richard's initial interview with the police. Since Hamilton's suspicion wouldn't be enough to secure a conviction in a court of law, Hamilton and the police worked together to stage the events that made Richard suspect Kathryn was still alive, hoping he would return to look for her body, and thus prove he had known all along what happened to her.
Cast
*
Humphrey Bogart as Richard Mason
*
Alexis Smith
Margaret Alexis Fitzsimmons-Smith (June 8, 1921 – June 9, 1993) was a Canadian-born American actress and singer. She appeared in several major Hollywood films in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Awar ...
as Evelyn Turner
*
Sydney Greenstreet
Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (December 27, 1879 – January 18, 1954) was a British-American actor. While he did not begin his career in films until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a Hollywood career lasting throu ...
as Dr. Mark Hamilton
*
Rose Hobart
Rose Hobart (born Rose Kefer; May 1, 1906 – August 29, 2000) was an American actress and a Screen Actors Guild official.
Early years
Born in New York City, Hobart was the daughter of a cellist in the New York Symphony Orchestra, Paul Ke ...
as Kathryn Mason
*
Charles Drake as Prof. Norman Holsworth
*
Grant Mitchell as Dr. Grant
*
Patrick O'Moore
Patrick O'Moore (1909–1983) was an Irish actor who appeared in a variety of American films and television shows. Keaney p.445 A character actor, he appeared in a number of Hollywood's British-themed films during the 1940s and 1950s.
Selected fi ...
as Det. Lt. Egan
*
Ann Shoemaker
Ann Shoemaker (born Anne Dorothea Shoemaker; January 10, 1891 – September 18, 1978) was an American actress who appeared in 70 films and TV movies between 1928 and 1976. She portrayed Sara Roosevelt, mother of Franklin D. Roosevelt, in b ...
as Nora Grant
*
Edwin Stanley as Phillips
Production
According to author
Aljean Harmetz
Aljean Meltsir Harmetz (born December 30, 1929) is an American journalist and film historian. She was the Hollywood correspondent for '' The New York Times'' from 1978 to 1990.
Her film books include '' The Making of The Wizard of Oz'' (1977), ...
in ''The Making of Casablanca: Bogart, Bergman, and World War II'', Bogart disliked the ''Conflict'' screenplay and initially refused the role in the spring of 1943. When
Jack Warner called Bogart to convince him to take the part, a
stenographer transcribed the call. Bogart told Warner: "I'm sorry, Jack. I just can't do it. My stomach will not let me. I am an honest man and I have to be honest with myself in this manner. If you want to get tough with me ... I will feel that I have lost a friend." Bogart only accepted the role after Warner threatened to block production of ''
Passage to Marseille
''Passage to Marseille'', also known as ''Message to Marseille'', is a 1944 American war film made by Warner Brothers, directed by Michael Curtiz. The screenplay was by Casey Robinson and Jack Moffitt from the novel ''Sans Patrie'' (''Men Withou ...
'' or to cast a different actor in its lead role if Bogart would not appear in ''Conflict''.
The movie was filmed in 1943, but its release was delayed until 1945 when a dispute over the rights to part of the story had been settled. In the meantime Warner Brothers decided to produce another movie on a similar theme, ''
The Two Mrs. Carrolls'', also starring Bogart and Smith, along with
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck (; born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic sc ...
. Filmed in April–June 1945, it wasn't released until 1947.
Reception
Box office
According to Warner Bros records the film earned $2,265,000 domestically and $1,442,000 in foreign markets.
Critical response
Bob Porfiero in ''Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style'' comments: "The film is particularly memorable for the use of the song 'Tango of Love' as
leitmotif to indicate the putative reappearance of Kathryn, with the background strings translating the scent of perfume; the opening tracking shot through the rain-soaked night up to the window of the Mason house, which allows the audience to eavesdrop on the dinner party; and the sinister appearance of Bogart as he steps out of the shadows to murder his wife."
Film critic Dennis Schwartz gave the film a mixed review, writing, "Humphrey Bogart plays a wife murderer in this flawed film noir. Director Curtis Bernhardt leaves the plot with too many artificial devices to be effective ... The only thing that can't be faulted was the earnest performances of Bogie as the tortured killer and the supporting cast of Warner Brothers regulars."
Schwartz, Dennis
. ''Ozus' World Movie Reviews'', film review, October 27, 2004. Accessed: June 29, 2013.
References
External links
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informational site at DVD Beaver (includes images)
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{{Curtis Bernhardt
1945 films
1940s crime thriller films
American crime thriller films
American black-and-white films
Films based on short fiction
Films directed by Curtis Bernhardt
Films scored by Friedrich Hollaender
Film noir
Uxoricide in fiction
Warner Bros. films
1940s English-language films
1940s American films