A Woman's Vengeance (1948)

A 40-ish married man (Charles Boyer) is having an affair with an 18 year old girl (Ann Blyth). When his neurotic wife (Rachel Kempson) dies suddenly, he is free to marry the young woman. But soon after the second marriage, his wife's body is exhumed and discovered to have been poisoned and he is put on trial for her murder. Based on the short story THE GIOCONDA SMILE by Aldous Huxley (who also wrote the screenplay) and directed by Zoltan Korda (1942's THE JUNGLE BOOK). This noir-ish mystery is surprisingly adult for the 1940s. The protagonist played by Boyer is having an adulterous affair with a girl young enough to be his daughter and the film not only doesn't condemn him for it, it romanticizes it. But although Boyer is top billed, the film belongs to the third billed Jessica Tandy. In her films of the 1940s and 1950s, Tandy rarely had really good parts but here as the frustrated spinster desperately in love with the married Boyer, Tandy finally got a role worthy of her talent. What she does is horrible but you can't dislike her and indeed, right up to the end you can't help but feel empathy for her. The first rate B&W cinematography is by Russell Metty (SPARTACUS) and the strong score is by Miklos Rozsa. With Cedric Hardwicke, Mildred Natwick, John Williams and Cecil Humphreys.