Conflict (1945)

Directed by Curtis Bernhardt; produced by William Jacobs

Richard Mason (Humphrey Bogart) is a successful engineer stuck in an unsuccessful marriage. His wife, Kathryn (Rose Hobart), and he don’t love each other, though they’ve been married just five years, and don’t seem even to like each other much. Mason’s affections have instead turned to his wife’s younger sister (Alexis Smith). After an automobile accident leaves him with a broken leg, Mason determines to kill his spouse. One night, he carries out his plan, but soon finds clues that suggest Kathryn is not dead, and is taunting him. Did he kill her? Is he going crazy?

For those used to seeing Humphrey Bogart as a man of action, as a hero, Conflict will come as a surprise. It is definitely different than most of his films, casting him as a more ordinary person, buffeted by ordinary desires and problems, but giving him an extraordinary - and felonious - solution to them. This allows him to show aspects of his talent not always apparent in his other movies, and it serves him well. There are some scenes in which Bogart allows a very subtle reaction or expression to speak his lines for him, and it displays his talent: check out his face when he hears that his wife survived the car crash unscathed.

The other actors do themselves a credit, too. Hobart, as the wife, is not a shrew, though her behaviour is not really sympathetic. Even so, we can understand it. Smith is effective as a young woman caught in an uncomfortable situation. Sydney Greenstreet plays a retired psychology professor whose association with Bogart is key to the story; he is far more jovial and amiable here than in a number of his surprisingly few films. It’s interesting to see these two professionals working together, their relationship in Conflict more distant and formal than in, for instance, Casablanca, in which their characters share shades of grey from their pasts.

The trouble with Conflict lies in its script. The story depends upon it and, while that story may be seen to be at fault, it could have been more mysterious, more eerie, with a better script. The problem is that the solution to the mystery may be too easily seen by viewers. Certainly, red herrings are tossed in admirably, and may cause some confusion, but if a viewer thinks he has the answer early on - and many probably will - the false leads and dead ends won’t shake his conviction.

That written, I can state that Conflict is nonetheless entertaining. The atmosphere is successful (thanks to the direction) and the acting is on target. If the script is weak, then it is not a fatal weakness. It would be in a straight mystery, a movie with its puzzle at its centre. But Conflict can be seen for Bogart, Greenstreet and Smith, for the human drama of their story, as much as for the crime element. In this respect, the film works.