Conflict (1945) ***

Release Date: June 15, 1945

Running Time: 86 minutes

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Rose Hobart, Sydney Greenstreet, Alexis Smith

Directed by: Curtis Bernhardt

Two years prior to The Two Mrs. Carrolls, Humphrey Bogart is cast as a wife killer. The primary difference between the two films seems to lie in a more concrete motive the audience would easily be able to latch onto rather than a dull level of confusion involving paintings and bribery. Here the motive is straight forward, love. Or perhaps lust would be a better word for what Bogart is seeking here.

The film opens on Bogart as Richard Mason, a man celebrating his fifth anniversary with his wife Kathryn (Rose Hobart). From the start it is obvious the marriage is an unhappy one, something Kathryn needles Richard about. She sees that he has an infatuation for her younger sister, Evelyn (Alexis Smith), and he doesn’t bother to deny it. Kathryn will not grant him a divorce and takes pleasure in letting him know that. Later, at the anniversary party, Dr. Hamilton (Sydney Greenstreet) entertains the guests with a story about an unhappy couple that will in many ways mirror the events to come.

On the drive home, Kathryn and Evelyn are talking and Kathryn attempts to convince her sister to leave town to visit their mother who is lonesome. Angered by this, Richard crashes the car, suffering a broken leg while the passengers escape unscathed. While recovering, Richard exaggerates the seriousness of his injury, pretending to need a wheelchair long after the cast has been removed. Under this guise, and arranging a work meeting that will prevent him from accompanying his wife to a mountain resort, he plans the perfect murder, one that he seemingly would be unable to have committed. The plan works out perfectly with one little exception. On her way out of town, Kathryn stops by Dr. Hamilton’s home and is gifted a rose that he pins to her jacket. This simple act of kindness will eventually be the key to unraveling her murder.

As a mystery, Conflict struggles a little. There really isn’t a true mystery here. We see the murder take place so we know Richard is the guilty party. The film is also very obvious when revealing the slip-up that will eventually be Richard’s undoing. We catch the mistake right away and, more importantly, the film wants us to know who else caught the mistake and knew what it meant. That robs the film of much of the suspense. Later into the picture we get what feels like an homage to The Tell-Tale Heart as little things start to happen or appear that would seem to suggest Kathryn may yet be alive. These events may confuse and disorient Richard but not the audience who was privy to the earlier slip-up and can put two and two together. 

This film could have been a train wreck with the wrong cast involved. What saves it is a truly stellar, if a little over-the-top performance by Bogart. We see from scene one that he is a deeply unhappy man wishing to be out from this marriage to a woman everyone around him thought was not a good fit. Dr. Hamilton even mentions at one point that no one thought the marriage would last. Richard and Kathryn are good at putting on a face around their friends but in private things are a little more honest and raw.  Bogart is an expert at portraying this pain and resentment. We feel for him, even though we can’t get behind him when he channels those feelings into murder.

Rose Hobart has a much harder part to play here. She has only a few scenes to get across where she is at in this relationship. Her interactions with Richard directly are sharp and mean-spirited at times yet we can also see that deep down she still loves Richard. When Richard is unable to go with her to the mountain resort she seems disappointed. Later, on the drive up the mountain alone, when she comes across Richard out in the middle of nowhere, she seems happy to see him at first, an emotion that would only be expressed in this situation were it were genuine. Rose has so little screen time as Kathryn yet we learn everything we need to know about her side of the marriage in those few scenes. 

Alexis Smith is plain awful in this film. She is badly miscast as the naive younger sister. She was much better served as the home-wrecker Cecily in The Two Mrs. Carrolls. She is never convincing when she is on screen and watching her act here is just plain painful. Sydney Greenstreet is better but he doesn’t have much of a character to work with. Dr. Hamilton is notable in one way though. It’s the only time he and Bogart co-starred in a film where he played a good guy and Bogart was the villain. 

Conflict is a good film but not a great one. The story is derivative and too heavily telegraphed to be much of a mystery. The supporting characters are all either forgettable or miscast. It glides by on the charisma of its two leads, Bogart and Hobart, who do an excellent job of showing rather than telling. This, and some fantastic filming (just look at the car crash and you’ll be amazed what can be done without CGI or fancy stunt driving) elevate this from its B movie trappings.