So Evil My Love

Ray Milland plays a charming scumbag and self-indulgent fraud (not to mention a murderer) in So Evil My Love, Lewis Allen’s Gothic noir based on Joseph Shearing’s novel, which in turn was loosely inspired by the real-life mysterious death of a London barrister. It’s a slow-burning, deliberately paced Victorian tale that unfurls in front of exquisitely rendered and generously budgeted period settings — from lifeless boarding houses to domed art museums to opulent mansions — thanks to the work of production designer Thomas Morahan, costume designer Sophie Devine, and cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum. Milland’s Mark Bellis is a con artist and thief who targets missionary widow Olivia Harwood as his next sexual and financial conquest, but Ann Todd delivers the far more complex and layered performance as Olivia, blending Victorian repression, romantic vulnerability, and apparent religious conflict with a villainous urge that clearly goes beyond simple corruptibility; her desire to hang on to Bellis, who threatens to leave for lack of funds, leads her not just to commit crimes but to discover her true criminal self. Geraldine Fitzgerald plays Susan Courtney, Olivia’s childhood friend who lives in a luxurious hell with husband Henry (Raymond Huntley), constantly threatened with commitment to a sanitorium; under pressure from Bellis, Olivia secures a job as Susan’s paid companion to gain access to the Courtneys’ household items (like stock certificates and scandalous letters) which can be swiped and liquidated. So Evil My Love rewards patient viewing as Olivia’s moral evolution delivers dramatic twists and revelations, culminating in a final act that seems to be as much a will to power as a total surrender.