This Is My Love **** (1954, Linda Darnell, Faith Domergue, Dan Duryea, Rick Jason, Hal Baylor) – Classic Movie Review 10,910

‘What Was The Dark Menace That Shadowed This Woman’s Life? It Dragged Her To The Brink Of Unhappiness and Despair’.

Director Stuart Heisler’s 1954 Pathécolor melodrama This Is My Love stars Linda Darnell, Faith Domergue and Dan Duryea in a tale of two sisters, one a spinster and the other trapped in a loveless marriage to a bitter, crippled invalid, who compete for the attentions of a handsome young man.

Linda Darnell plays the unstable Vida Dove, who lives with her younger sister Evelyn Myer (Faith Domergue) and her brother-in-law Murray Myer (Dan Duryea), working in his diner he owns. Murray was Vida’s beau but fell in love with her sister and married her, but was then paralysed in a car crash, is in a wheelchair, suffering from convulsions and acting cruel to Vida, and dependent on meds from his wife and sister-in-law.

Vida has a boyfriend, Eddie Collins (Hal Baylor), but forms an instant attraction when Eddie brings his handsome friend Glenn Harris (Rick Jason) to the diner. Glenn asks her out, but Vida is shocked to find Glenn is interested in Evelyn and cannot believe her sister plans to steal a man she loves for a second time.

Although no What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, this forgotten gem of a murder-melodrama vividly conjures up an unremittingly repressive picture of the 1950s. Unrequited passion constantly simmers in the impressive performances of Darnell and Domergue under the assertive direction of practised Hollywood old-hander Heisler. Just when you are expecting black and white, it is shot in now weirdly faded Pathécolor by Ray June.

It is written by Hagar Wilde and Hugh Brooke, based on Hugh Brooke’s story Fear Has Black Wings. Should they have kept the original title? Of course they should. Brooke was also producer so he must have had a say.

Also in the cast are Rick Jason, Hal Baylor, Jerry Mathers, Susie Mathers, Connie Russell (as Herself, Nightclub Singer), Mary Young, William Hopper, Stuart Randall, Kam Tong, Judd Holdren, and Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer.

It premiered on 3 November 1954 in Los Angeles and was released on 11 November 1954 by RKO Pictures.

It is shot at Republic Studios, Hollywood.

This Is My Love is directed by Stuart Heisler, runs 91 minutes, is made by Allan Dowling Pictures, is released by RKO Pictures, is written by Hagar Wilde and Hugh Brooke, based on Hugh Brooke’s story Fear Has Black Wings, is shot in Pathécolor by Ray June, is produced by Hugh Brooke and scored by Franz Waxman, with Art Direction by Wiard Ihnen.

Linda Darnell (born Monetta Eloyse Darnell).

Linda Darnell (born Monetta Eloyse Darnell, 16 October 1923 – 10 April 1965) is best remembered for Forever Amber (1947), Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949).

Heisler had previously directed Linda Darnell in Saturday Island (1952). His best film is The Glass Key (1942),

Films directed by Stuart Heisler: Straight from the Shoulder (1936), The Monster and the Girl (1941), Among the Living (1941), The Glass Key (1942), The Remarkable Andrew (1942), The Negro Soldier (1944), Along Came Jones (1945), Blue Skies (1946), Smash-Up: the Story of a Woman (1947), Tulsa (1949), Tokyo Joe (1949), Chain Lightning (1950), Dallas (1950), Storm Warning (1951), Journey into Light (1951), Saturday Island (1952), The Star (1952), Beachead (1954), This Is My Love (1954), I Died a Thousand Times (1955), The Lone Ranger (1956), The Burning Hills (1956) and Hitler (1962).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,910

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