Payment On Demand (1951)

Tired of his social climbing wife's (Bette Davis) ambitions and controlling nature, a businessman (Barry Sullivan) stuns her by asking for a divorce. After he leaves, she reflects on their marriage and what brought them to their unhappy end. Directed by Curtis Bernhardt (A STOLEN LIFE), this domestic soap opera sat on the shelf for two years before being released but only after Howard Hughes (the head of RKO at the time) changed the pessimistic ending to a more hopeful one. It's too bad because the ending seems too pat, too arbitrary after all we've been shown. The most unusual aspect of the film is the use of theatrical scrims (we can see through walls into other rooms or the outside) and stylized painted backdrops (a starry sky revolves continuously during a night drive) during the flashback sequences while the scenes set in the present are presented naturally. Davis is fine, though her Edith Head wardrobe isn't very flattering, in one of those wives from Hell parts (think Mary Tyler Moore in ORDINARY PEOPLE or Crawford in HARRIET CRAIG). Victor Young provides the score. With the famed stage actress Jane Cowl as a wealthy aging divorcee living in Haiti with a gigolo, Frances Dee, Peggie Castle, Richard Anderson, Kent Taylor, Otto Kruger, John Sutton, Natalie Schafer and Betty Lynn.