Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Frenemies

 I was looking forward to this film ever since I caught about 5 minutes of it on TCM one night, but this time I was able to watch he whole thing through.


The film starts out with Deborah(Jeanne Crain)who is picking up friend, Rita (Ann Sothern). A woman named Addie is narrating the film as they drive. We learn that these gals are buds and are talking smack on Addie. They are in bad moods because they have been fighting with their husbands all morning.




They arrive at a dock and meet up with Lora Mae (Linda Darnell) to take a bunch of kids out to camp for the day. Lora Mae is mad because her man has been fighting with her as well.


 Before the ship sails they back stab Addie again and then receive a letter from her. She informs them she has left town and taken one of their husbands with her! Being the BFF that she is, Addie refuses to tell them which husband she has decided to commit adultery with.



The girls sail away worried and sad, wondering who it could be. As the boat ride continues we do a flash back into Deb's head and learn a little bit about why she would suspect her man to be the one to leave. Deb is new to town when she marries Brad and is very insecure. She learns that Brad and Addie were once an item and she  thinks she is not good enough for him. 



The boat arrives at camp and this time it is Rita's head that we get a glimpse inside. She and her man, George,  happy but they start to quarrel when Addie delivers a birthday gift to George after Rita had forgotten. She has high society business guests over for dinner and is acting snobby. George gets mad and yells at the guests and tells Rita he wishes she were classy like Addie. Could it be George who is off on a rendezvous?



Finally we see Lora Mae's story as we flash back to when her and her hubby, Porter, where just dating. She works at his store and is hoping to make it rich through marriage. Porter is not interested at first, since he is still sad about his break up with Addie a year before. Lora Mae plays some games and gets Porter to marry her, but it seems like it is just for the cash.



When they get back from camp, the girls must find out who will be coming home to an empty house and who's husband is still true. I really enjoyed this film with it's great acting, different story line, and good use of characters.

4 comments:

Aubyn said...

So glad you caught this film. It's one of my favorites. Might be Linda Darnell's best performance.

Daddy Squeeze Me! said...

yes i loooooooooooooooooooove this. have it on my computer!!!

anyway, it kinda ticked me that we never got to see addie..ive been racking my mind for whom i could see playing her part...like one of my favs DOLORES MORAN or THE GREAT IDA LUPINO!


This is a great movie and dare i say kirk douglas was sexy in this film!

Mr. Tiny said...

This is a great film! It is the only Linda Darnell movie that I own but she is tops! It would be great to see Celeste Holm (Addie) because she is definitely one of my favorites as well but I think it adds to the overall mystery. I have watched this many times and come up with a different theory every time. Is the outcome of the film totally obvious and I'm just really dense? I had to be careful how I phrased that without a "spoiler alert."

Emily Hernandez said...

I love Linda in this film! She is adorable and fierce at the same time. I think I want to buy this one. I kinda like that we don't see Addie. Hey Chris, the ending is weird to me as well, and I kind of like it, you can sort of make up your own ending. (How did I do without a *spoiler alert*?) I guess after the movie came out the studio had a contest to see who could guess Addie's voice and there was a prize for the winner! Haha. Almost as fun as when they had a contest to decide what Joan Crawford's name was going to be. Oh the good ol' days...