BD Scores Up Another Kill

 

Deception, Davis, and the Deal Breaker

Herewith elements of Deception: Bette Davis the kept woman of rich composer Claude Rains discovers former lover Paul Henreid, from whom she had been separated for six years and thought dead in Europe, except he's alive and arrived to New York. Soon upon reunion, he suspects she was and continues to be unfaithful. Much is embedded in Deception to confuse, in fact frustrate, viewership in 2025. I enjoy old films that baffle and even alienate modern watchers, enjoying their discomfit from go-back vehicle I drive to any year past, “Outdated cultural depictions” saying come-on-in to ones of us that relish triggers pulled. What Deception classifies as a Deal Breaker makes little sense now and barely would fifty annums ago when late shows were haven to storms wrought by a presumed moral climate, many such starring Bette Davis. Said Deal Breaker is this: Davis as unmasked mistress of C. Rains will be full and final disqualified to be Paul Henried’s wife should he learn her scarlet past, object of Deception’s 115 minutes to keep Paul in darkest dark, even if Bette must kill to keep him there. To what lengths did women of the 40’s go to conceal a past consummation from husbands or fiancées? Laugh if one likes, but this was a serious complication then. I read of Hugh Hefner’s college-era sweetheart whom he chose as potential bride, till tearful confession re illicit involvement with one of her professors, leaving Hugh never to trust girlfriends again. So yes, to learn of a misstep however slight was a Deal Breaker for 40’s men, 30’s,  20’s, teens, why stop going backward, or forward? Question is, are there still such Deal Breakers? Is Deception so culturally outdated as we assume?

Rains Shows Disdain Over His Toy Taken Away

Deception arrived at ideal time for sixteen million lately discharged vets to consider a burning issue: Had their significant other been true through war’s separation? Expectation of yes to that critical question was absolute and nonnegotiable. Alan Ladd got a no in The Blue Dahlia and murder followed. Imagine if Fredric March had come through Best Years reunion door to realize Myrna Loy had dallied/was dallying, with “Mr. Milton” (Ray Collins). Harsh enough for Dana Andrews to bear such insult from Virginia Mayo, but we expect as much of her character. Deception despite elevated backdrop comes down to, was Bette faithful while once-lover Paul was away, any gray area purest black so far as returned from duty men saw it. But what of a serviceman’s conduct overseas? Let anyone prove it, most figured, and indeed, we must assume few were caught. To that, however, consider Gregory Peck in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, whose indiscretion follows him from Italy, ten years after the fact, to face Jennifer Jones wrath with him obliged to pay support for the kid borne by a Euro mistress. Said notion chilled not a few former G.I’s to the bone. Double standard enabled males to be forgiven, but cheating wives or sweethearts … well, that was at the least a choking offense, as demonstrated by Paul Henreid, who upon glance at Bette’s spacious loft and hung furs takes her firm by the throat and is barred but by BD lying her way out of the clutch. Davis drips sincerity but turns from him toward us to register guilt and make it plain that yes, she’ll sucker him along, truth reserved for the camera and our vantage. This then was essence of BD projection of personality, who she'd be for us as opposed to screen partners seldom dealt straight. We as viewers must be played fair, however Davis misleads them. This kept us in her confidence and made the Davis persona, if not always sympathetic, at least understandable.

Maestro Claude Humiliates Hapless Paul Who Unknowingly Poached from Rains' Bed

Enter Claude Rains. The cuckolder. He is too old to have served, which means he had whole of the war to gather wealth and graze on Bette. Claude as “Alexander Hollenius” is effete, cruel … a lion who prowls over Manhattan society and will not loose BD from his iron grip. Fun aspect of Deception is Rains throwing out clutch that would keep narrative on convention’s line. Alex is Laura’s Waldo Lyedecker and then some. Deception director Irving Rapper would recall him as the whole show so far as a public’s and his own interest went. Shadow of Waldo/Alex looms over John Hoyt in a later and lesser with Davis, Winter Meeting, and Claude Rains would to degree be Alex again as a lethal radio commentator in The Unsuspected, which needed all of charisma the character star could supply. Any type an audience embraces will be back, Bitchy Males arriving with the war, if not having served in it, and staying long after. Were they presaged by Laird Cregar in Blood and Sand, or was the sort glimpsed sooner? We had the model to thank for George Sanders in All About Eve, Bette Davis on receiving end once more. Did Bitchy Males in classic sense survive the fifties? I can’t offhand think of memorable ones after. Either way, Rains’ mean line in wit makes his cause easier to root for rather than mopey, possibly violent, Henreid. Rapper said there was consideration of a Deception finish where the trio settle their difference a la Lubitsch and exit laughing, but fan-servicing Bette realized the show needed fireworks for a third act and so imposed a shooting. We could rather wish she’d dump strung-out Paul and repair again to Rains bed, which likely was Rapper’s wish as well, as he regarded Henreid unequipped to carry a co-star part, Davis stepping up to say we mustn’t break up the sure-fire Now, Voyager team.

Bette Sits While They Stand at Attention, a Familiar Sight on Davis Sets

He Likes Funny Papers, But Nobody (Save Us) Laughs with Rains Rage in Deception

Rains makes priceless comedy of meal selection, seven minutes to beggar belief. Did any among Method arrivers imagine they could supplant Claude Rains? Without him, Deception would sag under weight of negative cost at $2.8 million, most ever for a Davis film. WB prospered with prior BD A Stolen Life ($4.7 million in worldwide rentals), which Deception did not come near. In fact, Deception and future Davises for Warners would bleed red, Beyond the Forest a last straw and her exit off Burbank premises. Of course, good pictures can fail readily as poor ones, account books replete with such, and what matter to us so long as Deception pleases? The property was one Warners bought lock/stock from Paramount, having been made by latter as Jealousy in 1929 with Fredric March and Jeanne Eagels, a feature apparently lost now. Toward joy I derive from seeing the Code undone, as it often was where one divines code beneath the Code, Deception is to my satisfaction an instance, not a first, where the lead lady commits murder and gets away with it. Code films were made for two kinds of viewership, one the sort who bought a most apparent resolution, and two, those who’d dig below surface, narrative gold being after all where you find it. Artists of greater ability laid trail to endings they and many among us might prefer, quiet conspiracy by which to please by stealth if not by obvious means. Deception by my reckoning was an instance of this, so yes, I claim Bette Davis gets away with murder, evidence aplenty to accommodate whichever outcome we’d choose.

I Say It Was Deception That Did the Goading and Mocking, with the PCA on Receiving End

Defense for Bette looks solid if/when they reach trial, chance of that the less unless she were so foolish as to confess, which based on her leaving the gun to suggest suicide, she had no intention of doing. Handy too is both Rains and Davis wearing gloves, so no prints to worry with. The houseboy is off for the night. Maybe he could testify later as to arguments overheard, but would that offer sufficient evince of motive for her to kill? Bette blabs truth to Henreid, about the affair and the murder, but he assures her that “You’ll never lose me” and pleads that they “think it over until tomorrow,” and anyone who knows Davis wiles may be assured he’s lined up as accomplice after the fact from here on. He even tells her that “these things have to be planned,” and we can bet Bette has a plan already, of which her tearful admission is merely a part. She’s got this chump squared away before they even hail a cab. What system of justice can contain Davis When She’s Bad short of her owning up or eyeball witnesses, these preferably in triplicate. Were it Ann Sheridan or Alexis Smith or even Crawford sufficiently browbeat or sacrificial in Mildred mode, I’d concede capture, trial, maybe the rope … but knowing Henreid is a famed cellist, more so after this concert, why not let the two book a Euro tour for war-battered music lovers eager to hear him play, preferably in places with lax or no extradition policy. It doesn’t make sense for a Bette Davis character by 1945 to be conscience-racked for offing a guy who made her life such hell. She’ll instead have furniture, furs, Grand Piano, whole of her loft content, shipped to the Italian villa Paul will arrange once worldwide success is secured. He could end up being the next Alexander Hollenius.