BootDigest
Such a frustrating disappointment
Kidskycom
It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
Humaira Grant
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
gridoon2018
Diana Dors shows in "The Unholy Wife" that besides a smashing, busty figure she had serious acting chops as well (even when she is completely un-glamorous in the "present day"scenes). The plot of the film is not bad, and it has an ironic finish, but it's drearily directed. ** out of 4.
Uriah43
For some reason this film has a "B-movie" quality about it and I think it has something to do with the lead actress, Diana Dors. Although some have referred to her as, "the English Marilyn Monroe", she just doesn't seem to have the "on-screen presence" that Marilyn had. At least, I don't think so. Because of this, while she is certainly very pretty, I never quite got that intrigued with her performance in this picture. Her acting seemed kind of bland and "wooden". Be that as it may, in this film she plays "Phyllis Hochen" who is the conniving wife of a rich wine-maker ("Paul Hochen") played by Rod Steiger. But she doesn't love him. Instead she is having an affair with a local rodeo cowboy named "San Sanders" (Tom Tryon). Being terribly unhappy with Paul she schemes to get rid of him. Anyway, so much for the plot which is pretty basic and has been used any number of times. While I don't want to sound terribly negative, I will say that one thing I didn't care for was the technique used which had her telling her story from a jail cell in the past tense. Now, I realize that this is a typical film-noir technique but (when used) it often seems to take some of the mystery out of it. Anyway, add in an average script, weak directing (John Farrow) and mediocre acting all around and it pretty much rates a "5 out of 10". While it wasn't "great" I suppose it was an "okay" way to spend an hour and a half.
sol1218
***SPOILERS*** In a very reserved and non method and overacting, that were used to seeing him back in the 1950's and 1960's, role Rod Steiger steals the movie, even though he's the star in it, as the sensitive tragic as well as guilt-ridden California wine baron Paul Hochen.We already see that Paul is up the creek with his wife Phyllis, Diana Dors, in prison clothes and her bleached blond hair a ruddy brown spilling her guts out to how she tried to frame him in the murder of his best friend and fellow wine grower Gino Verdugo, Joe DeSantis. As Phyllis tells her story the movie goes into flashback as we see the events that lead up to Gino's tragic death. It seemed that Phyllis was having an affair with bronco busting rodeo cowboy San Sanders, Tom Tyron, behind her husbands back. If that wasn't bad enough Phyllis planned to murder Paul and make it look like an accident in that he was mistaken for a prowler trying to break into the Hochen Mansion. Waiting for the right moment to pull off the "Perfect Crime" Phyllis saw that opportunity arise in a fight that Paul had with Gino at a wine grower convention over him selling his vineyards to an out of town and get rich quick shyster outfit. Despite making up with Gino in private all those that were at the convention saw was the slug, or better yet slapping, feast the two had in public. Knowing that Paul was to cut short his precipitation at the convention and go home Phyllis waited for him, with a revolver in hand, to show up and blow him away making it look like he was a prowler trying to break into the house! The thing that screwed up Pyllis' plan was that Gino coming to talk business over with Paul, not Paul, got there first and ended up being shot to death with Phyllis mistaking him for Paul!***SPOILERS*** With Phyllis faced with a possible murder charge Paul together with Phyllis concoct a plan where he'll take the rap in accidentally killing Gino where she can be free to look after her and Paul's 8 year old son, from a previous marriage, Michael, Gary Hunley, while he in awaiting trial spends the next few months behind bars. The one thing that Phyllis and her boyfriend San, who was in on her murderous plan, never anticipated, until it was too late was the sick and frail and not having long to live Momma Emma Hochen, Beulah Bondi, overheard the whole ghastly plan to murder her son Paul which put a wrench into it! That's if Momma Hochen lived long enough enough to tell to police about it! ***MAJOR SPOILER**** It was also Momma Hochen who knowing that her daughter-in-law Phyllis was totally rotten without a decent bone in her entire body that she took the institutive and did the unthinkable in getting her convicted of a crime that she didn't commit! That was to make up for Phyllis getting off Scot-free for a crime that she did!The very fine acting, especially by Rod Steiger, made up for the so-so script that at times seemed totally unbelievable. There's also the drop dead gorgeous British actress Diana Dors as Phyllis Hochen to look at when the movie got a bit confusing and hard to follow. And of course there's Arther Franz as Paul's older brother Father Steven Hochen who finally got Phyllis to fess up and take responsibly for what she did in her killing Gino while sent to the San Quentin gas chamber for a crime that she didn't commit. Yet ironically had everything to do with it having happened!
dbdumonteil
Next to last movie by John Farrow,this work is a return to the style of some of his earlier films Noirs ,particularly "Alias Nick Beal" and above all William Irish's (aka Cornell Woolrich)" the night has a thousand eyes" :what was written in the stars in the 1948 effort (thus everything man does to change his fate is pointless) has become a supernatural (shall we say divine?) intervention.This immanent justice,the old lady believes in it and she is sure that God will know his own.Ray Milland portrayed the Devil in "Alias Nick Beal" which was an updated Faust .Diana Dors portrays another devil with a red dress on.The title says it all: "the unholy wife" is a Christian movie (In Irish's books the Gods are closer to the Greek divinities) ,which the presence of a priest in the family (the husband's brother) reinforces . The story,which is a long flashback ,is a long confession -and becomes a true one ,in the religious sense of the term in the last sequence.There's an unusually inventive use of colors ,with blue ,yellow and black predominance .Hot Diana Dors 'look sharply contrasts with the prisoner in jail.Farrow 's obsession of time running out recalls "the big clock" (remade as " no way out" by Roger Donaldson with Johnny Depp); it was also present in "night has a thousand eyes" .Time becomes a matter of life .The big clock invented by Farrow and Latimer in 1948 was a splendid metaphor of this time which is rarely on man's side.
