The Two Mrs. Carrolls: A Forgotten Gem of Classic Hollywood Noir

The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) tells the story of Geoffrey Carroll (Humphrey Bogart), a painter on vacation in Europe who has lost his inspiration. He soon meets Sally Morton (Barbara Stanwyck), a charming woman who quickly falls for him. However, Sally soon discovers that Geoffrey is a married man with a daughter.

Geoffrey swiftly justifies his situation, informing her that his wife has been ill for a long time and that he intends to seek a divorce immediately. Sally, deeming this unfair, doesn’t agree with his approach. Sometime later, Geoffrey returns to tell her that his wife has passed away. The two finally marry, and life seems to take a positive turn. Sally becomes his muse, inspiring a beautiful painting, and she gets along very well with her stepdaughter.

But after a while, Geoffrey seems to lose his inspiration again. Then, the beautiful Cecily Latham (Alexis Smith) arrives at their home. She wants him to paint her portrait, but soon they embark on a passionate romance. Sally begins to grow suspicious, especially when she finds evidence that her husband may have lied about his previous wife’s death…

It’s worth noting that the film was based on the play The Two Mrs. Carrolls, written by Marguerite Vale Veiller, which premiered in London in 1935. However, after acquiring the rights, Warner Bros. changed several aspects of the play, including the first Mrs. Carroll’s demise.

The cinematic version undeniably features elements that strongly recall other, more famous earlier films: Rebecca (1940) and Suspicion (1941) (both by Alfred Hitchcock), Gaslight (1944) directed by George Cukor, and even Conflict (1945), also starring Bogart and Smith, directed by Curtis Bernhardt. All these films share the theme of psychological abuse perpetrated by husbands against their wives.

While The Two Mrs. Carrolls may not be the best of the films mentioned, and it certainly flirts with many others, it is undoubtedly worth watching simply for the pairing of Bogart and Stanwyck. Both were at the peak of their popularity and worked together only on this film.

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Carla Marinho Leal

Writer, traveler and above all, curious about many subjects. She has studied cinema since 2002 and is a Specialist in Cinematographic Studies from UNICAP. Founder of the blog Purviance and the website Cinemaclássico. She loves Charles Chaplin, Raj Kapoor and constantly browses films from all over the world.

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