Rent Bedelia (1946)

Black Widow, Fluffed Pillows - Bedelia review by griggs

For a so-called “black widow” thriller, Bedelia spends a lot of time plumping the cushions – but it’s still a good time. Margaret Lockwood gets a great part as a woman with a suspiciously high turnover of husbands, and she plays it with that mix of warmth and quiet threat that makes you lean in, even while the story’s dawdling.

The pacing’s all over the place. It fusses about early on, then suddenly decides it’s full-on melodrama rather than an actual nail-biter. Barry K. Barnes, as the supposedly sharp investigator, wears such a permanently smug face you end up cheering Lockwood on out of sheer irritation. Ian Hunter, meanwhile, gives the unwitting husband a sad, slightly lost air the script doesn’t really earn.

By the final act, though, it clicks into a nicely foggy Gothic groove – seaside gloom, drawing rooms full of secrets, everyone lying by omission. Not a hidden classic, but a pleasing little poison bonbon for Lockwood fans and anyone who enjoys their thrillers a bit creaky but charming.