They Won't Believe Me (1947)

Directed by Irving Pichel; produced by Joan Harrison

Larry Ballentine (Robert Young) is on trial for murder. Taking the stand in his own defence, he relates the events that led to his current situation. As he describes the past few months, he also paints pictures of those involved in the crimes that have occurred: his wife, Greta (Rita Johnson), his past girlfriend, Janice (Jane Greer), and his more recent mistress, Verna (Susan Hayward). But he also reveals himself - and reveals himself to himself. By doing so, is Larry showing his innocence or his guilt?

They Won’t Believe Me, despite the unpromising title, is a well-made thriller that depends greatly on its writing and acting. No one involved lets the audience down. The centrepiece of the cast is Young; he usually plays a decent, moral man; certainly, later generations know him as the good parent of the tv series Father Knows Best, and the caring doctor in Marcus Welby, M.D. Here, his character is more ambivalent.

Truly, Larry Ballentine is not a bad guy. He has, however, a wandering eye, and a desire for his own pleasure. He is undoubtedly selfish. He knows he is, and has morality enough to feel bad about hurting others. Yet he is self-centred enough to contemplate murder. This is not a black-and-white character, but one closer to many real people than they might care to admit.

Nonetheless, due to Young’s performance, we sympathise with Larry. He is not the cold criminal at the heart of many films noir. He wants to be happy, and is willing to sacrifice others’ contentment for that goal - but does he have the personality to take that quality to extremes? And if he does, will the decent parts of his character allow him to live with his actions? This human dilemma is convincingly portrayed by Young.

If the writing is good enough to persuade us to give a serial philanderer a chance, then it is not surprising that it creates three dimensional characters for the women in his life. Johnson’s Greta is cool and realistic about her husband’s affairs. She, like Larry, knows what she wants but, in contrast to him, is unwavering and calculated in how she obtains and keeps it. But there is something vulnerable in her, and Johnson brings that out in a sad, not quite resentful way.

Greer has the least to work with but even her part is a good one, while Hayward has a role to get her teeth into. In some ways, Verna is not a great deal different than Greta, though what she wants is more tangible, and less constrained by formalities and convention. And like Greta - and Larry and Janice - she has more occurring under the surface than she lets on.

The movie’s direction is good, with some tense scenes, but the writing is what really backs up the acting. The script is better than the story, but the latter is nonetheless interesting, involving realistic people in the confusion that is often caused by emotions. They Won’t Believe Me’s producer was long-time Hitchcock collaborator Joan Harrison. As she was also a writer (eg. the films Foreign Correspondent, Rebecca), it would not surprise me to learn that she had a hand in the screenplay of this movie.

It’s rare for a film of the 1940s to portray an adulterer sympathetically; more often, a character who is a thief, a drunkard, a killer, will be shown to be less villainous. They Won’t Believe Me is an adult film about adults; taking into account some contrivances, it is a realistic depiction of people whose desires create more havoc than they can control.