On W List of Movie Reviews
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The Woman on the Beach (1947)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
6/15
6/15:
Talk about ridiculous.
Having seen a lot of Jean Renoir pictures, I don't like his style because it's always more unrealistic than realistic.
The Woman on the Beach fits the bill. In fact, the executives at RKO didn't like the original print and forced the
director to redo a third of it, resulting in stilted dialogue and gaps in logic. Afterwards, they terminated his contract, and
he never did another American film.
The acting jobs by Robert Ryan, Joan Bennett, and Charles Bickford are fine although Nan Leslie's performance is a big eek. Her
character inexplicably disappears most of the time. Perhaps it's better this way. What I like is the justified suspicion that's
fed by Bickford's painter-husband character who actually encouraged the adultery between his wife and a Coastal Guard
officer. Hence, he does well by creating tension. Even better is the beautifully photographed dream sequence which rivals
Salvador Dalí's in Spellbound.
Unfortunately, The Woman on the Beach comes apart at the seams because of the overwrought melodramatic plot which
gradually becomes comical to watch. The ending of two men trying to kill each other in the ocean and then getting over
the spat is pitiful. Finally, the husband lets his wife go by setting the paintings on fire to declare himself free of
her. Yeah, right.
All in all, Jean Renoir tries too much in The Woman on the Beach but ends up delivering a silly picture.