1) It's not shot in black and white but in bright Technicolor like a musical comedy.
2) The femme fatale isn't played by the likes of either Barbara Stanwyck or Bette Davis but instead by the angelically beautiful Gene Tierney(a Republican actress who dated JFK but voted against him for Nixon in 1960).
Miss Tierney won her only Oscar nomination for the sociopathic Ellen Berent. Her performance was so convincing that later on when she was visiting a friend's house their maid refused to cook for that "mean woman". Miss Tierney went to speak to the maid and afterwards the maid said to her something along the lines of "you were real mean in that movie ma'am but now that I've met you I can see you're really very nice." Miss Tierney later said she was very flattered by this experience as it was the most sincere compliment she ever received for her acting ability.
“The trouble with Ellen is that she loves people.....too much.”
ping
I’m late mentioning this, but I finally watched your suggestion from last week, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. It was great!!
Great movie.
When you have spent an important part of your life playing Let’s Pretend, it’s often easy to see symbolism where none exists.
Gene Tierney
great movie