DECEPTION

US, 1946, 112 minutes, Black and white.
Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, John Abbott, Benson Fong.
Directed by Irving Rapper.

Deception is heightened Hollywood melodrama at its - most melodramatic. The film is a Bette Davis vehicle, after the period when she had achieved the height of fame and dramatic success from the end of the 1930s to the mid-40s. Here she teams again with Paul Henreid and Claude Rains (having worked with them in such films as Now Voyager, Mr. Skeffington).

The film has the atmosphere of the end of World War Two, the return of Europeans to the United States.

However, the film is stolen by Claude Rains in his interpretation of an eccentric musical genius, Alexander Holenius. The film has the usual Warner Bros. lavish production for Bette Davis plus some musical excerpts. Needless to say, it has to be seen to be disbelieved. Entertaining of its kind.

1. A Better Davis vehicle? Her impact in the 1930s and 1940s, star presence? Now? An enjoyable melodramatic vehicle?

2. Warner Bros. production: the music world? score? Black and white photography, affluent settings? Reality and unreality? The lush Max Steiner

3. The world of melodrama and soap opera? Contrived and heightened? Nevertheless, enjoyable? intense and dramatic? Credibility of characters and plot? Bette Davis and Claude Rains in their melodramatic vein?

4. The focus on Karel: the return from Europe, the experience of the war, his career and its interruption, New York, success, meeting Christine again, the ambiguity of the meeting, his puzzle, her wealth? The references to Alex? The party and the clash with Alex? His sincere response? Composing his music, working hard at it, the hope for Alex to play it? Christine being elusive? The build-up to the performance? Alexander's death? His future without Christine?

5. Christine and her music, skill, meeting Karel again, the reaction, the ambiguity, her home and her wealth, the adornments and their beauty, her lies, the past and her trying to recapture it, her piano performance? Alex and his melodramatic arrival? Creating scenes? her visiting Alex, his receiving her in his room, the deception? The tantrums? Alex's plans - and his wanting to ruin Karel? The final confrontation, the credibility of her shooting him? Her future?

6. Holenius - so much heard of him before he was seen, his reputation, reaction, his ambition, selfish, stylish, wealthy, his pets, household, bed? His skill as a composer? Reaction to Karel and trying to get his revenge? Her picking him? Relationship with Christine, allegedly giving her her freedom her turning against him? His tantrums? The performance? The confrontation? His death?

7. A piece of melodramatic Americana: the war, the art world, the American dream, opportunity? Violent and emotional clashes?

8. This kind of film as a melodramatic fable embodying popular values?