They Won't Believe Me

It doesn’t pay to get romantically involved with Larry Ballentine (Robert Young) in Irving Pichel’s They Won’t Believe Me: in fact, two of the three women in his life (and his bed) end up dead. Very much a glossy romantic drama with an underlying tone of noir futility, the film co-stars Rita Johnson as Ballentine’s extremely wealthy wife Greta, Jane Greer as his extramarital lover Janice Bell whose charm can’t compete with Greta’s money, and Susan Hayward as Verna Carlson, his second extramarital lover and co-worker at his securities firm. Of the three actresses, Johnson’s performance is particularly mature and memorable as a woman accepting her husband’s affairs with her head held high despite the fact that “I must have lost my self-respect the day I married you.” The vulpine Ballentine is truly despicable: materialistic, disloyal, unprincipled, scheming, and pathetically weak, as evident in his constant return to Greta if she just waves more cash in front of his face. Taking advantage of chance and confusion, Ballentine is even prepared to murder to get his way; fortunately, he’ll ultimately face poetic — if not legal — justice. While Pichel and cameraman Wild create a handful of noir visuals when the stakes are highest, the film is crafted more like a generously budgeted melodrama with a brilliant, little twist at the end.