The Secret Fury (1950)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

So much average

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Claudette Colbert and Robert Ryan are both too old for this screwy tale of a wedding interrupted by the claim that the bride is already married. She looks far too matronly-sensible to be driven insane, as she is, by a lot of suborned witnesses (or actors) who, apparently, wait at home for Colbert and Ryan to come calling on them (and who somehow manage to ensure that they will be in a certain hotel room rather than any of the others). He is a far too interesting actor to waste on a script that has him either rushing around after clues or consoling Claudette. And why is she a successful concert pianist? We expect that, or at least her sensitivity to sounds and music, to have something to do with the story, but it is just a pointless detail.So terrible is the writing that we never find out who killed the murdered man or how! (He was alone in a room with Claudette when he was suddenly shot dead. Did the instigator of the plot pay him so much that he was willing to kill himself?) And, if you are still suspending disbelief, the movie cuts it loose in the final scene, in which Claudette, who has been incarcerated in a high-security mental institution, has managed to escape, to travel at least several miles back to her home, and to acquire a loaded gun! The movie aims to start on a cute note by showing Ryan walking into the house where he is to be married and being refused admission because he does not have an invitation. He meekly goes out and tries to get in the back way, but a security guard blocks him there too. Why on earth doesn't he say he is the groom and prove it with some ID? The writers may have been pleased with their supposedly humorous idea, but it's not funny because it doesn't make any sense. Who except Caspar Milquetoast would behave that way? Certainly not Robert Ryan!

I didn't know what this film was about, but I watched it because I really enjoy Claudette Colbert. For the first few minutes I thought it was a comedy. The bridegroom can't get into the house because he doesn't look the part. Then, when the wedding party is asked, "If anyone here knows of any reason why this couple should not be wed...", and someone stands up and objects. Very quickly, however, it becomes clear it's not a comedy, and for the first third of the film we wonder what is going on here? Could the Colbert character really already have a husband and was about to commit bigamy? Not so far off a typical soap opera-ish 1940s drama. But then, suddenly, at the "jazz house", it becomes clear this is a 1950s film, and a very different tone emerges as it appears that Colbert has shot her first, secret husband. It becomes nearly film noir. And, the ending is a humdinger! Colbert is superb here, but this is not the Colbert you're used to seeing. Insane? She's in an asylum! Nervous breakdown? She's hysterical! A bravura performance.I don't typically like Robert Ryan, but in this film he's very good.This is a very solid mystery, not to be missed by Colbert fans.

Is Ellen (Colbert) losing her mind—is she already married? The trouble is what she remembers happening is not what a bunch of other people remember. So what's going on.About half way through, the movie turns from high-key lighting into noir. But then Ellen's fiancée is the great noir icon Robert Ryan. Except here, he's basically a good guy, although those inventive opening scenes where he can't get into his own wedding prove he's a quirky sort. Colbert gets to show her acting chops by running through about every emotion in the book. And I couldn't help thinking of the previous year's The Snake Pit (1948) as I watched her breakdown.It's a tense, riveting mystery as we try figuring out what's going on. Ellen seems so convincing, but then so does the damning evidence against her. The screenplay effectively draws the noose ever tighter around Ellen's sanity up till the end. Then the script nosedives with some ridiculous motivation that's just too implausible to fly (without giving it away). Too bad, since the movie could have excelled without this unfortunate lapse.There's one scene that intrigued me. Hoping to unravel the mystery, Ellen and David enter what looks like a spacious, well-lit livingroom. There, what only can be described as a cutting-edge jazz ensemble is laying out the cool sounds of the time. Draped languorously across a couch is an equally cool-looking blonde. It's a highly suggestive scene, and clearly an effort at creating exotic atmosphere. But, the banal setting and the high-key lighting drain the needed visual impact. It's almost like someone (director Ferrer, the producers?) was afraid of too much "atmosphere", (contrast with the super-evocative jazz scene in the classic DOA {1950}). Thus, a potential highlight is allowed to pass by.All in all, it's unfortunate that the fine acting, inventive touches, and genuine suspense are challenged by a key lapse in the plausibility of the screenplay. Otherwise it's an effective little thriller.

When ever a film is produced or directed by Mel Ferrer, you can bet your life any of his pictures will be seen for generation after generation. Just having Claudette Colbert,(Ellen R. Ewing),"The Egg & I",'47 appearing and starring in the film will make it even more of a great Classic Film. In this film, Ellen Ewing gets married and then she encounters all kinds of mental problems and even murder. The mystery gets very much involved and Robert Ryan,(David McLean),"Battle of the Bulge",'65, comes to the aid of Ellen and sometimes you even wonder about David being on the up and up. As you view this picture you just about find yourself beginning to understand who is the real nutty person and all of a sudden, you begin to change your mind how the film will end. Great acting by Claudette Colbert and Robert Ryan who played an entirely different role than he usually portrays on the screen. I forgot to mention that Mel Ferrer, was married to a great film star, Audrey Hepburn. Great Classic film, with great Classic Actors !